Even angels will fall
by No Taboo
Summary: Love comes in different forms. Which is more important, family or someone who you don't even know? It's always easier to leave, but what happens when you can't? Time and place can separate you from your loved ones, you have to choose either the old and safe or the new and fascinating.
1. First sight

**A/N: So this is the first chapter, I hope that you'll enjoy. Check out the other chapters too, I'll batter Noctis in them (I might be joking _a little_.) :] English isn't my first language so if you spot any mistakes, please let me know. I decided to rate this as M just to be on the safe side. Please review! :)**

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**Decision**

"Sergeant Lightning, I now announce that from this day on you'll be leading the troops of Cocoon in order to stop the constant wars between the kingdoms to combine the kingdoms." The king announced.

"It is a great honor to accept your assignment your highness, I will do my best to achieve the goal." Lightning bowed.

For now on her duty was to combine the kingdoms, one at the time. The rulers of the kingdoms wouldn't just abandon their kingdom, Lightning was sure that every one of them would try to eliminate them. The goal wouldn't be easy to achieve.

At the same time the civil war was raging in Cocoon, people were divided in to 2 groups with different opinions, but the goal was the same, to destroy the most powerful weapon in the whole world. It had too much power.

The rumor of crystal had been circulating around the kingdoms for a long time. A little was known about the crystal, since nobody didn't really know what was it and where it was. However the tale said that the crystal contained huge powers, which could be transmitted in one person at the time and the energy of the crystal would give special skills to the owner of the crystal, the skills the person would receive were based on the person's personality.

However, the crystal could be used to cause massive destruction or to remain the peace if the holder was right. The only problem was greed, it would be really hard to choose the person who would be given the ownership of the crystal, people feared that the person with the crystal would turn evil, because the huge power he was holding. It made people have different opinions what to do to the crystal.

That finally dragged Cocoon into the civil war. People were divided in two different groups.

Group one wanted to the crystal to be destroyed. They thought that it would be best for all to get rid of the crystal so they would be no fear if someone would use it for the wrong purposes.

The group two wanted to find the present owner and to torture him until he would tell them where the crystal was. Then the owner would be killed to get the ownership and the crystal would be handed to the king.

Lightning sighed she was really confused; she didn't have an idea that what she should do. She didn't really belong to into either group. She just wanted the civil war to end and the life to be turned normal. She was afraid that something would happen to Serah while she was gone, people were killing their own people on the streets, neighbors, friends you name it, and that all was caused by their opinions.

The thing that she was now leading Cocoons troops, their mission were to locate the crystal and to monitor the situation until they will find all the needed information to make the decision to what to do for the situation.

Then they would go back to king to tell what they've found out.

Lightning was going to start the research next morning; they had to keep a low profile since they didn't want to get spotted while leaving the city. If they got spotted they wouldn't be able to cross the borders between different kingdoms because guards were guarding the borders so that unwelcomed visitors couldn't sneak in. Even a slight noise would ruin the mission.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Alright! Is everyone ready? You're following my orders now, my word is your law got it? I've placed you in certain classes, everyone acts according their class. No exceptions. The first border is about 40 miles to east from here we have to cross a forest, so keep your eyes open for monsters. And make sure that nobody can hear us." Lightning gave a speech to the soldiers.

Lightning hated keeping speeches they made her feel stupid, she hadn't given speeches before so she were a little lost with her words, but she guessed that they got the point.

Lightning went into the storage room and grabbed her fighting gear and put it on. Her fighting gear wasn't as heavy as it looked like; it was specially made for her. It was made of titanium which made the gear light and easy to move with since titanium is light and flexible. There were some golden details on it too and white chocobo feathers just as decoration, Serah wanted to add them because she believed that they bring good luck. Lightning didn't really care like the details she thought that they were useless.

She placed the gunblade in its case on her hip while watching soldiers picking up their gear, she saw some kids there too. The age didn't really matter in this kingdom, if you could fight well or heal people, you were in. Most of the kids didn't want to be soldiers but many enlisted just to get some money to help their family. There was a lot of poverty in this kingdom, now it was even worse. The king wasn't managing his kingdom well Lightning had to admit. He was a really cold person, he didn't seem to have any feelings.

"Hey! Are you gonna leave without me?" Fang shouted from a distance with a slight smirk on her face.

Lightning turned around to see where the sound was coming from and then she saw Fang ascending down the stairs and walking towards her.

"Please keep your voice down Fang, we don't want any unwelcomed intruders to hear us and ruin our mission." Lightning sighed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure that you don't forget to take me with you, I want to have some fun." She smirked and tapped Lightning's head

Lightning slapped her hand away and asked irritated "Since when did I ask you to come with us, you should have –"

"Since now! Okay let's go guys we don't have all day!" She shouted to the soldiers gathering questioning glares.

Lightning tried to protest, but Fang was already going. "Dammit Fang" she muttered and ran next to her.

"To let you know, I have been ordered to lead this group, if you do anything stupid it's considered as my fault, I can't afford that to happen." She told her with determinative voice tone.

"Geez, calm down redhead. Nothing can happen when I'm around." Fang smiled playfully.

"Hey! I'm not a redhead, where did that come from? You better to keep your mouth shut or you'll end up getting kicked out of my group." Lightning shouted to Fang.

"Oh, I'm so scared, I apologize sergeant Farron." Fang said to her with a slight laughter.

"Please quit using those stupid titles, just call me Light." She said while they walked into the woods.

"Oh, by the way where are we exactly going?" Fang asked.

"Oh my god Fang, you just decided to come with us and you don't even know where we're going?" She looked at her in disbelief and shook her head.

"I was bored." Fang answered bluntly.

"That's the most ridiculous answer I've ever heard."

"I just told the truth. What made you to take the whole bunch of soldiers with you?"

"I didn't want to; I was ordered to take them with me. We must locate the crystal and track the situation until we have enough information to return to the king." Lighting explained, trying to keep her balance when the terrain turned rocky and hard to walk on.

"I see. Did you see how quickly the surroundings got darker, it's seems like it would be night." Fang looked around surprised. Then she tripped and fell over.

"Dammit!" She cursed.

Lightning giggled.

She could hear the soldiers laughing too.

"Shut up, it's not funny!" Fang shouted at her

She rose up and swept the dirt off her blue sari.

"You deserved it." She smirked.

"Shut up."

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis sat on his chair in front of his desk, on the desk were huge piles of papers and letters. Liquor bottles were lying all over the floor and papers were covering the floor. His office was messy, very messy.

He didn't allow the maids to come into his office to clean up; he didn't want people to find out that he was drinking while he was working.

Alcohol was his friend, it kept him going. He had too much to do, managing the kingdom was torture to him. He had to make sure that all the paperwork was done in time. He also had to attend to stupid conferences and make decisions about his kingdom. Sometimes he had to keep speeches too and other stupid stuff what king had to do.

He drank _a lot_it made him feel better, alcohol made him to forget his worries. It made him feel self-confident and relaxed. He tried to hide his real personality. He had no self-confident, he was shy but he could be very caring too. He thought that he was weak. His personality wasn't fitting in his imago at all. He was the prince. The prince couldn't be shy; he just didn't want people to think that he was weak. He tend to act restrained around other people. He was acting coldly, like he got no feelings. He was rude toward other people too, so he would look stronger.

"Dammit!" He cursed to himself. He knocked some piles of papers of his desk enraged. He looked the papers falling on the floor and then he lowered his head on the table and ran his fingers though his hair.

His hair was messy and not in too good condition but it still managed to maintain its natural shape, his hair had unnatural spikes on back the back of his head he hated that people thought that he was using some hair products to maintain the shape. He didn't care what he looked like, he hated to look himself. He was pale, like he would be sick. He had dark circles under his eyes, like he wouldn't have slept for a long time. He didn't know that, he hadn't looked in a mirror for a long time.

His eyes were about to turn red, he fight against it. He didn't want to things to turn ugly. He was very erratic when he had lost the control of himself, he would destroy anything what came on his way. It didn't matter if it wasn't his friend or something else he treasured. The other half of him took the control when he snapped, he couldn't do anything to control it, then he was totally different person what he really was.

That made him hate himself even more, he knew that there were no one who could be keep company with him, someone to share his thoughts with. He was too erratic and dangerous.

Well he had a few friends, he was really lucky to have friends who could understand him. They had the courage to be around him. Even though he had almost ended up killing them few times.

He was depressed.

Someone knocked the door.

"Who is it?" He shouted straightening his posture.

"It's Ignis, can I come in?"

Ignis was his friend; he had been serving his family for a long time so he had known him for many years so he trusted him quite much.

"Come in then." He sighed, he hoped that Ignis wouldn't have come to drag him to some stupid conference, what he had forgotten or to bring him more paperwork that he would need to do.

Ignis stepped in and sighed "Have you drank again?"

"No." He lied, he was fuddled.

"Yes you have." Ignis said rolling his eyes.

"What makes you think that?" Noctis tried to convince him.

"Oh, just look look around, there's bottles and your papers all over the floor, what a mess. Your hair is messy and you look like you were dead."

"Quit bitching Ignis, just get to the point." Noctis said. He actually felt sorry for being so rude, he couldn't understand how he could stand him.

"I'm sorry your highness. I didn't mean to offend you." He apologized, bowing slightly.

Noctis stared him and rose up from his chair and leaned against his table. He felt a little dizzy when standing up.

"_I shouldn't have drank that much"_he told to himself.

"Stop using titles and being formal, I hate it. Now what did you came here for?"

"The thermal image cameras on the borders have detected some unusual activity of people wandering around the border at night. It might be an army." Ignis tried to explain.

"Tell the guards to let them through, I want to know what they're looking for." Noctis ordered.

Ignis couldn't believe what he said. So he tried to inform him "But isn't that quite risky? They're from another kingdom, they might be after the crystal."

"They don't know that it's here." Noctis said carelessly and started to walk towards the couch. He wasn't interested at all. He hated when Ignis nagged to him all the time.

"Listen to me Noctis! We can't be sure if they've found out that it's here, we can't just –" He was interrupted by Noctis.

"You're dismissed" He said and jumped on the couch. "I have to take a nap."

"But –"

"No butts get your ass out of here." Now he was really irritated, he already had too much work to do and now Ignis thought that he should handle this situation too. In addition he felt nauseated too.

Ignis left the room closing the door after him. He couldn't believe how indifferent he was. He knew that managing the kingdom was exhausting, but it seemed like he didn't care what would happen to him. He could remember when he was happy, until something happened to him and now he was always by himself. He never smiled or laughed, he and his other friends tried to cheer him up, but he didn't even seem to notice.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Lightning yawned.

"Do you think I'm boring?" Fang asked

"Shut up."

"I was joking." Fang answered, she was bored.

"Sorry, we must be quiet now, we will cross the border soon, so if you don't shut up, then I have to make you silent." Lightning said seriously.

"Oh don't be so serious, I'm sure that nothing will –" Fang couldn't finish her sentence when Lightning gave the sign to the soldiers that now was their change to cross the border.

Lightning got up and ran towards the border with her soldiers following and Fang next to her. A long and deep moat was separating the two kingdoms from each other. Around the moat were high metal fences with barbed wire on top of it. On the bottom of the moat were large spikes to stop anyone from jumping to the other side. Since the fence was surrounding the moat on both sides, there was no way to get over it.

They had to come up a new strategy.

"Woah, Well I'm not going to jump into that moat, you guys do whatever you want…" Fang said took a few steps back.

"Oh, looks like someone is scared ." Lightning smirked.

"No, I'm not. I have a better idea." She pointed to the towers which were on both sides of the main entrance, where cars could drive through if they had the permission to enter into another kingdom.

"You see those towers?" Fang asked with questioning voice and looked at Lightning.

"Uh-huh"

"If we get rid of few guards around in front of the walls we might be able to get under the towers base and nobody will see when we climb up inside the tower and get rid of the guard on top of the tower and climb down to the other side then we can open the gates to the other side." Fang explained, like she would have done that before.

"Well, we could try that since I'm not personally too interested in jumping to the other side either." Lightning said and informed to soldier so all of them knew what to do. "Shall we go now?" Lightning asked from Fang.

"Yeah, let's go."

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis was leaning against the balcony of his room, he stared the city, high skyscrapers were piercing the sky with other high building in the city. Some rooms in the skyscraper were lighten up, some weren't. Only the light separated the buildings from each other. All the buildings were painted pitch black. His father, the king allowed only black buildings to be built. Noctis wasn't too sure why, since he wasn't too close to him.

His father had left a few years ago to somewhere else, nobody knew where. Even he didn't know where he went, one day he just was gone. Some people thought that he would have killed him or something, because they couldn't understand why would a king just leave his kingdom behind like that.

He still was a prince, because the most of the people though the king would soon return, so he was managing the kingdom while he was gone. He was 22 years old now, he would have wanted to spend the first years of his adulthood with no worries and with no commitments. He was 16 years old when his father disappeared, so he already had accepted that he was now soon to be the king of this kingdom what meant that he had to abandon all his dreams for good.

"Damn it." He hit his fist against the marble railing.

He went inside and went to the cabinet where he kept his liquors and he randomly grabbed one bottle to drown his sorrows.

He sat down and took another drink. The alcohol burned his throat as it went down; he loved how it made him feel warm and relaxed. He wasn't hooked on it because the taste. In fact he hated the bitterness and how it tasted like, he just liked how his body corresponded to it.

His cellphone rang.

"Who is it?" He answered the phone, he couldn't think clearly.

"When did you forgot how to read? Your phone should be showing my name on it when I'm calling." He said.

"I'm not stupid, who is it?" Noctis tried to clear his mind.

"Oh my god, it's Prompto."

"What do you want?" Noctis mumbled.

"Are you okay? You sound like you're little messed up or something." Prompto asked little worried.

"Oh, please don't act stupid. You know me." He answered. He just wanted to put it simply. All his _three_ friends knew he had problems. "So what did you call me for?"

"I forgot… Oh, it was about the group wandering around our borders!"

"What group?" Noctis asked surprised.

"You're hopeless."

"Sorry I forgot."

"Just come to the entrance of the city, now." Prompto said and hung up the phone.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Lightning and Fang had managed to get cross the border and were walking towards the city.

"How did we get through so easily, there must be something wrong" Lightning thought.

"I guess that we're just too good." Fang grinned

"Stop playing games, I can't just understand how they couldn't see us, the one guard almost walked past of us." Lightning mentioned.

"Maybe he was lazy and just wanted to ignore us." Fang said with a slight laughter. "Look this place is completely dead, there's nobody around and the only thing I can see is that city over there."

"Maybe this kingdom doesn't have enough funds to plant trees or something, well I can't complain. The surroundings look quite good but it's too dark in here."

"Yeah, I think that the sun was just about to rise when we crossed the border." Fang muttered.

"I guess that we just have to head towards the city, and look like we were tourist or something.

"Are you sure that it's going to work?"

"I'm not sure, but we don't have too many choices, there's nowhere to hide here. I'm pretty sure that the crystal isn't here; if it were the city would be bigger. That city looks like a ghost town to me." Lightning said and yawned

"You gotta sleep more"

"I have much time to sleep when I'm dead."

"That doesn't sound like a good goal." Fang laughed

"That wasn't what I meant, I –"

Lightning dodged.

Lightning looked up, there were the blow came. She couldn't see anything.

Then she looked forward.

"This is not good." Fang took few steps back.


	2. Mixed feelings

**A/N: Read & Enjoy & Review! You can also review first and read after that ! :D**

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There were soldiers in black and two guys in front of them, the other guy had blonde hair and he was wearing white shirt with a grey vest, his jeans were grey too. He was holding a shotgun on his other hand.

The slightly bigger guy had a really dark blue hair; Lightning could barely see that his hair just wasn't pitch black even though it was dark outside, she saw that it had that bluish hue.

All his clothes were very dark colored too, everything was black. On top he had black leather jacket and a biker glove on the other hand. He was also wearing a pair of black military boots.

Lightning stared at him and smirked.

Fang glared at her.

"Well, well what do we have here?" The guy in black asked mischievously.

He sounded really tired but at the same time his voice was smooth and silky.

"_Is he sick?"_ Lightning thought_. He was really pale and he looked like he had not slept for ages. He had dark circles under his eyes. But still he maintained to look…good."_ she thought.

Fang punched Lightning's shoulder. "Stop daydreaming." She whispered.

"We are just visiting, we have the permission to cross borders." Fang lied.

"May I see it?" The blonde guy asked and smirked.

Fang acted like she had forgotten something and she wasn't good at it. "I guess we lost it." She said.

"I knew that." The blonde guy said and smiled.

"Excuse me?" Fang stared him in surprised.

"_Damn it, the guards must have detected us without us knowing."_Lightning cursed in her mind._"This isn't good."_

A strange dark aura was starting to surround the guy in black. He looked very serious and then he just swept his hand through the air and a sword appeared to his hand, out of nowhere.

Lightning and Fang stared at him with a slight fear on their faces. Only the owner of the crystal would have that kind of skills.

"Uh-oh" Fang said.

"I can summon more swords, so if your soldiers attack on me you're pretty much dead. You don't want to that to happen right?" He said "Who's the leader in your group?"

"I am." Lightning said.

"Oh, that little girl? I've never seen a girl leading an army." He mocked.

Lightning was pissed off. She hated when somebody compared started to compare men to women.

"You look little like a girl too. Why are you so skinny? Don't you ever eat anything?" Lightning smiled. He wasn't skinny at all, but she couldn't come up with anything else to mock him about. She wasn't good at it.

"Okay. Let's fight so we'll see who's the girlier one." He said and teleported so close to her that she couldn't drew her sword.

_"What the fuck?" _Lightning was puzzled and she stared at his deep blue eyes for a moment confused.

"You're pretty." He said and took a step back so he could attack.

Lightning was quicker. She drew her sword and tried to hit him with the sword to slash his neck open.

His and hers swords clashed against each other. He stumbled back a little.

"You seem to have poor balance." Lightning mocked.

He gave her a smug smirk. "Not so quick, I'm not ready yet."

"What, are you asking me to give you a time out?" Lightning smirked.

His eyes turned red like flames for a moment but then they went back to normal.

"Shut up already! Get out of my kingdom!" He shouted to her.

"Who said to you that this is your kingdom? That's funny, have you escaped from mental hospital?" Lightning laughed. "Or are you just trying to talk yourself out of this situation, because a girl is going to kick your ass? How embarrassing."

"I'm the prince, so show me some respect bitch!" He clenched his teeth. "Prompto, take care of the other bitch!" He shouted to Prompto.

Lightning froze for a moment and stared at him, then she realized that she couldn't be staring at him all the day.

"Prince is getting his ass kicked by a girl." Lightning mocked

Prompto nodded hesitatingly and loaded his gun.

Then the troops attacked on each other.

"I didn't command you attack!" Noctis ordered and summoned more swords, they floated in the air. As he summoned the swords, he got surrounded by a defensive barrier, to avoid himself getting hit.

Lightning's eyes widened and she dodged when he raised his hand to command the swords. He swept his hand calmly from right to left slaughtering his and Lightning's troops just like that.

"_What the fuck? He killed his own army. Is he crazy or something?"_Lightning thought.

Now there was only she and Fang and against them.

"What did you think of that?" He looked down to her.

"_This guy is such a jerk, he's so full of himself_ "Lightning thought

"I think that you didn't have the courage to face them without using your ridiculous skills, so that you wouldn't get killed." She mocked him.

His eyes flashed red for a short time and then they turned to dark blue color. "You shouldn't have said that." He dismissed the swords around him.

Lightning tried to strike him immediately, but she was too slow. He grabbed her by her wrist before she could finish her strike.

"How can you be a soldier, if you're that slow? I'm amazed how you're still alive." He held her wrist tightly. "This thing here is dangerous, you shouldn't be carrying things like this around, you might get hurt." He mocked as he took her sword of her hand and threw it away.

Lightning took her change and punched him in the throat with her left hand. He didn't have enough time to dodge; his coordination was slowed down by the alcohol. The hit the ground hard, holding his throat.

"Aw shit!" He tried to get the words out of his mouth, gasping for air.

Lightning pinned him to the ground and took her knife which Serah had given her. He used it for self-defense only; she hadn't ever killed anyone with it.

"You know, this isn't really the right time and place for this." He wheezed and looked at her a smirk on his face.

Lightning stared at him astonished and slapped his cheek.

"Ow! what was that for?" He held his cheek.

"Quit playing games jackass, where's the crystal?" Lightning pressed her knife against his throat.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He tried to look innocent.

"_What a waste"_ She thought

Lightning slashed his throat. He moaned of pain.

"Dammit get off me!" He tried to keep the knife away from him. He squirmed in pain.

Lightning felt a bit regretful; she didn't like to see other people suffering but she had to do this.

She had got him off-guard, there was no way he could summon his swords when his hands were pinned on the ground.

"This is my last warning, where is the crystal? I know you have it. Don't make me kill you." Lightning grit her teeth, she was getting really irritated.

"You won't dare to do that, bitch." He mocked.

She couldn't understand what he said. He was pretty much begging her to kill him; but she didn't really want to kill him, for some odd reason. He made her confused. She didn't even notice that she rose up for a bit to see his eyes. She saw hatred and sadness in his eyes, it made her even more confused.

"_Why would he be sad, he seemed like a coldblooded killer."_Lightning thought

She had loosened her grip on him, so that he could get his hands free. He quickly raised his upper body and pushed Lightning off him. He rose up and swiped the dust off his jacket. The blood was flowing down his neck.

"That was a dirty move you know?" He spoke heavily breathing, he didn't seem to care about his wound, he was severely bleeding.

"_Damn it, I can't stand to watch that."_ A voice in her mind said.

Lightning just wanted to punch herself for making him to suffer. He'd bleed to death at any moment.

She was off-guard, she was thinking too much. Then she felt horrible pain what made her drop down on her knees holding the right side of her waist. He had managed to hit, now she felt stupid.

"Fang, go back to Serah to tell what have happened!" She shouted to Fang.

She felt the warmness of her blood. A huge pool of blood was forming on the ground. Then her vision started to dim.

"_Dammit."_

"No, I don't leave you here dying!" Fang shouted.

"Just go, it's my last wish. Let her know. I'm too severely wounded." She gasped for air.

Everything went black.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Lightning woke up; she was in a huge room, laying on a bed. The bed itself was so big that at least four people would fit in it. The walls were painted black with a little burgundy details near the ceiling. The sofas were also burgundy too. The floor was made of marble, shiny black marble. The room was dark. Lightning didn't like the room, it was distressing.

"_Where am I?"_ Lightning thought.

She tried rise in sitting position, but the pain made her to drop back down. Her wound on her waist was aching; it felt like it was burning. She couldn't do nothing but to trying to endure the pain.

"_Great, am I a prisoner or what?"_Lightning sighed in her mind.

She heard someone walking down the hallway and the door opened. The blond haired guy stepped in. Lightning was horrified.

"Good morning beauty, are you feeling any better?" He smiled warmly.

"Stay away from me!" Lightning shouted to him and tried to get in better position, if she needed to defense herself.

"Wow wow, calm down. You're hurting yourself." He said concerned and walked next to the bed.

"Don't touch me, or I'll kill you!" Lightning tried shouted to him, and moaned of the pain which slashed her every time when she tried to move farther away from him.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure that you're okay. I won't hurt you." He said.

"How can you think that I'm okay? You two just tried to kill us!" Lightning glared at him.

"Noctis doesn't like visitors from other kingdoms. He overacts sometimes, I'm sorry." He ran his finger through his hair.

"Who's Noctis?" Lightning asked.

"He's the prince." He said. "Oh and I'm Prompto, nice to meet you!" He stretched his hand out to shake her hand.

"_So the prince's name is Noctis, were his parents drunk when they named their son?"_ She thought and snickered.

Prompto stared at her trying to find out what was she thinking.

Prompto stared at her for a moment to get a better look at her, she was really beautiful.

"What are you doing?" Lightning asked tiredly.

He blushed. "Nothing, I was just thinking."

"Can you tell me where am I, this room frightens me." Lightning asked.

"This is one of the many guest rooms in the castle." He smiled.

"Is this Noctis' castle?"

"Yes." Prompto answered.

She was astonished, why was she here and why was he concerned of how she was doing?

"_I can't sit in this room for the rest of my life. What happens if I run into the prince?"_ She knew that horrible things would happen if she would meet him. But why was he in his castle then, why would he care?

"Where's Fang?" Lightning asked.

"The other girl with you?" He asked.

"Yes, what did you do to her?" She almost shouted.

"She pretty much kicked my ass at first and then she started to head back after you ordered her to go back." Prompto said.

Lightning was relieved. Now her family and friends at least knew where she was.

Or they more likely thought that she was dead, after what Fang had seen.

_But at least they knew what happened to her._

Lightning yawned.

"Oh, I guess you should get some sleep. I'll come later to change your bandages." He said while he was walking towards the door.

"What?" Lightning shouted.

"What is it?" Prompto turned around and looked at her.

"I don't want you to come any closer to me than you just were, I'm quite sure you have something in the back of your mind."

"Noctis ordered me to do so, I don't want to make him angry. I'll be pretty much dead if I don't follow his orders." He said to her and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"_He ordered to take care of me? I can't understand what he's trying to achieve. She almost killed him and he almost killed her, it doesn't make sense."_Lightning was pondering.

She couldn't keep herself awake anymore, she felt really weak, she must have lost a lot of blood. She tried to make herself more comfortable by turning on her other side. God that hurt, but at least the bed was soft and comfy.

She wrapped herself under the blanket and fell asleep.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis sat in front of his working table. It was full of papers and letters and other paperwork.

He rubbed his neck where he had gotten gashed. He flinched. He didn't wasn't too sure how big the wound was. He didn't have mirrors in his castle. He hated mirrors; he didn't like looking at himself.

He had to take some painkillers to make the pain bareable, he would have wanted to take a drink too, but he knew he shouldn't start using drugs and alcohol at the same time. Now he was sober, he hadn't been sober for a long time. But now he had horrible withdrawal symptoms.

"Why is the whole world against me?" He sighed and laid his head on the table and hit his fist against the table. His stomach growled. He had to eat something, sometimes he had so much to do that he forgot to eat or then he was too drunk.

He sent a message to the kitchen to prepare some food for him. He could use it 24/7, there was always some chefs, in case of he wanted to eat something. He had tried to cook by himself once, but he almost ended up burning the whole kitchen. But he would be happy to learn to do something by himself too, he was quite bored that he would get anything he wanted just by asking.

He called to the kitchen. "Get me some food here now and make some food for the girl too, and ask a maid to bring it to her room. Her room is in the east wing." Noctis spoke to the phone.

Silence, the chef must have thought who was he talking about, but then he answered. "Yes your highness."

Noctis hung up the phone.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Get away from me, now!"

"No, I can't help it, I must follow Noctis' orders, or I'll be gone for good." Prompto sat down on the bed. "Now come here."

"Just stay away from me, it's easier for both of us." Lightning said.

"Okay, let's do this into the hard way then." He climbed on the bed laying the bandages and other stuff on the bed.

"Wow wow, I think that I'll be fine without changing 'em." She tried to convince him.

"You'll get an infection."

"It's prince's fault then" Lightning said "Why is he keeping me here anyway?"

"I'm not sure, he doesn't talk a lot." Prompto put it simply. "Now, pull your shirt up."

"What?" She shouted.

"How do you think I'm going to change them otherwise? He smirked. "I can help if you need it."

"Shut up, pervert."

"I can call Noctis, if he would like to lend a hand." Prompto said with a slight laughter.

"Hell no."

"What if I get you a kitty?"

"Prompto, stop behaving childishly." Lightning rolled her eyes.

"No, I'm serious. Wait." He ran out of the door.

_How are all the people here so weird?_Lightning thought.

About 30 minutes later he came back with a house shaped basket.

"That's ridiculous." She said.

"No it's not, all girls like cute things, like kitties." Prompto laid the basked down.

"I don't" Lightning said.

"You should relax a little, it's not like I'm going to hurt you or something." Prompto said.

"It's hard to –"

"Here, look!" He lifted up a little white kitty with a red bow tie around her neck.

"…Are you serious" Lightning said with a questioning tone.

"Yes, what do you think of it?"

"It's pretty, thanks Prompto. Lay her down, you can't treat her like that."

"Oh, sorry. What king of name you want to give her?" Prompto asked and sat down on the bed.

"Does Melody sound stupid?" Lightning asked, she didn't really mind that he was so close. He didn't seem any hostile.

"No." Prompto answered and lifted himself up on the bed, crossing his legs.

"I can see what you're trying to do."

"I didn't do anything." He rolled over next to Lightning and laid his head between his hands.

"Hey, don't come so close. You're in my private area." Lightning said to him

"I knew you would finally give up, you just don't want to admit it." He smiled at her. "Okay let's change the bandages!"

"I didn't give you a permission to do that."

"Ahh, well let me at least have a look, so I can tell Noctis if you're dying or not." Prompto sighed.

"I'm not dying."

Prompto poked her. "Does this hurt?"

"Ow! Please leave me alone." Lightning moaned of the pain.

"Is that a yes?"

"Please keep your hands away from me, you're hurting me." She said.

"Right, well I guess that's enough for this day. Enjoy your kitty." He rose up and exited the room.

"_He isn't so bad as I first thought"_ She thought

Melody meowed.

"Oh sorry, I forgot about you. Come here." Lightning said to her. The kitty came and sat on Lightning's lap purring. "Be careful where you step." Lightning stroke her.

She indeed was cute and cuddly.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis walked down the hallway. He was on his way from the dining room to his room, when he saw a white kitty running down the hallway and entering one of the rooms.

"What the fuck" Noctis said out loud.

He walked followed the kitty to the room she went in. He thought that it was some maids room or something, he didn't even know what all the rooms looked like, since there was so many of them.

"What the fuck are you doing in my castle?" He shouted to the kitty hissed at him.

"Shut up, little prick." Noctis muttered and tried to kick the kitty, but she was faster and ran back to the hallway.

Someone rose up a little in the bed. Her hair was messy and she looked very tired. He had woken her up.

"Whoops" Noctis whispered to himself.

She rubbed the sleep off her eyes.

"Sorry?" She said.

His eyes widened.

"_Oh shit"_ Noctis thought, it was the girl he brought into the castle. "Uh umm, I think I have to go, bye!" He said quickly and went to the door but he stopped when she asked:

"Wait, who are you? Are you Noctis?" She asked.

"Uhm, well in I guess so." His breath whined.

Lightning tried to get in sitting position, it hurt a lot. She moaned quietly of the pain.

Lightning was terrified, she was vulnerable. She couldn't move.

"_Oh god, why is he here and what is he going to do to me?" _Lightning thought.

Lightning could see that he was in pain, she was pretty good in reading body language. Then her defensive barrier dropped and her caring side took control. "Are you okay?" Lightning asked.

Noctis clenched his fists. "Uh, I guess so." He tried to leave.

"_What's wrong with him? Why is he behaving like that? It was like he had many different personalities"_ She thought.

"Can you look at me when you're talking at me?" She asked, just to make sure it was him.

"Sorry I have much paperwork to do." He said

"I don't care, just turn around."

He turned around, trying to avoid her gaze and trying to keep his head down, so she couldn't see the wound. He didn't want to show her that he was vulnerable, he was known as coldblooded killer, he didn't want to show that he could get wounded too.

Lightning stared at him. The wound on his neck was long and deep. It was dark red and the skin around the wound was red, he got bruises too, it must be infected or something.

Lightning felt bad. She ignored the change that he could now easily kill her while she was in this state.

"Can you come closer, so I can have a good look." She asked.

"_Should I go to her or just get out of the room?" _Noctis pondered.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Lightning sighed.

Noctis wasn't too sure what to do, but he decided to go. There was nothing to lose, she couldn't really hurt him more in that state. He went next to her bed.

"What do you want?" He asked

"Just kneel down a little so I can speak to your properly." She tried to make excuses, but she ended up making herself look stupid. She just wanted to see how much damage had she inflicted to him.

"I'm the prince I'm not kneeling in front of anyone." He said arrogantly.

"Don't behave childishly, it's not too much to ask."

Noctis lowered down onto her level.

Lightning raised her hand to raise his head a little. He flinched. "Don't worry." She lightly touched his wound.

The wound was burning under her hand. He had to exert himself to not to moan of the pain, but at the same time it felt good how she carefully slid her warm smooth hand on his skin, along his neck. Then she let his head drop. Noctis blushed.

"Does it hurt? Have you shown it to a doctor?" Lightning asked.

He looked at her. "Why does she care?" He just attempted to kill her the other day. She should be afraid of him.

He couldn't look into her eyes, he was too shy. His cheeks turned red.

"No, I'm okay." He muttered.

"Are you sure?" Lightning asked, she was worried of him, she noticed how much it hurt him when she touched him.

"Yes, bye" He rose up and were about to walk out of the room.

"I'm sorry" She whispered.

He didn't believe what he heard. He turned around, staring at her.

"Can I ask something?" Noctis looked at her.

"Yes, what is it?" Lightning said.

"What is your name?" Noctis asked.

"Lightning."

She was a little surprised because he decided to ask that.

"Uh, okay. That's cool. Please feel free to use the services of my castle and ask me if you need something." He muttered. And went into the hallway and headed to his room.

He felt uncomfortable with her. He wasn't good at talking to girls; she couldn't look at her without blushing. He started stuttering and acting ridiculous around girls, he didn't know what to do. He only dared to talk to girls when he was drunk. Now when he was using some drugs to relieve his pain, he couldn't drink.

It made him feel vulnerable. When he was sober, he was blushing all the time and he behaved shyly.

"I need a drink." he said to himself.

His veins were full of adrenaline. He needed to calm down.

He went to his room and took a drink. And another and another...He ended up feeling nauseated.

He got a headache.

"_Damnit Noctis you're so stupid." _He wanted to punch himself. He holded his head.

"_I'm slowly destroying my own body. I can't continue like this."_

He went to his bed and laid down. He tried to sleep a little, maybe the headache would disappear.

He fell asleep and woke up almost right away.

He felt really hot. Drops of sweat were running down his chest. He was sweating a lot.

"Oh shit!" He cursed.

"What the fuck is happening?" Noctis was a little afraid.

He called to Prompto and explained to him what was happening.

"Just don't drink so much idiot, your liver can't process all the alcohol." Prompto answered frustrated.

Noctis hung up. "Like that would be so easy." He muttered himself and went in the bathroom to take a shower.


	3. Arrogance

**A/N: Okay, this took a long time to write (and fix the mistakes which I made.) But please Read & Enjoy & Review. ;)**

* * *

Noctis sat in the throne room, leaning his head on his hand.

He was waiting for the conference to start. He was bored as hell. He rose up and headed to the conference room. He opened the huge doors to come step in the conference room. Around the table were some people who waiting for him to come. He sat on the king's chair in end of the table; the queen's chair was empty.

The people started discussing about something, Noctis didn't even bother to listen, he hated conferences. Noctis was tired. He couldn't get any sleep last night. He was busy of thinking about Lightning, he felt sorry to put her through so much pain. He didn't mean to get so serious; he just thought that it would be fun to play a little. He regretted it a little, _a little._ It wasn't fair fight at all either. He regretted it right away when he noticed how seriously she got hurt

He never regretted _ anything, _he had the rights to do anything. He never felt bad if he killed someone, but now he felt, fortunately she didn't die though. Well, he didn't kill her, he didn't finish her, which was a new experience for him, he though that if he would start something, then he'd finish it too.

Noctis had gotten the strange feeling on that night , what he was never felt before. He felt remorse, because his actions. Suddenly his emotions turned upside down and he didn't want to hurt her anymore.

_"No, I was just drunk, I must have been thinking about something else, it's a shame that I don't remember well, but I can't help it." _Noctis thought and smirked arrogantly and then lifted his legs up on the table and crossed them. Noctis sighed of boredom and leaned back on the extremely uncomfortable chair and he crossed his arms behind his head.

"Your highness, can you pay more attention?" A dark haired male said.

Noctis didn't like other people ordering him around. He had the highest rank, nobody couldn't say 'no' to him. He wasn't having a great morning when he was sobering up, he felt so sick and nauseated that he decided to drink more right away to forget about everything, he'd rather to drink all the time or try to cope with sobering up.

Noctis gave him a murderous look, the man flinched and turned his head to avoid making an eye contact with Noctis.

Noctis smirked, he loved to use his rank to make other people's lives hard without any consequences. It was so wonderful to control other people as he liked, it was always fun to watch at.

Noctis tried to concentrate more but he basically couldn't. He wasn't listening anything what the other people were talking about his kingdom. Noctis knew that at the end of the day, he was the one who accepted or turned down the suggestions which were given to him. He didn't have to listen. He didn't want to listen.

"Noctis, you must find yourself a partner, the king isn't going to come back. You can't wait any longer, you're quite old already. The kingdom needs two rulers. Since your father didn't arrange you a marriage, you must to make sure by yourself, that any dirty blood won't mix in." Some guy said to him. "If you don't announce who you're going to marry in 2 weeks, we'll arrange you a marriage. Ignis will tell you what's the date of the weddings later."

Noctis took a deep breath and changed his position and hit his fist against the table. "Fuck you, I'm not marrying anybody. How dare you to advise me with my private life!?" Noctis shouted to him irritated.

"I'm sorry your highness, it's my job to try to help you with running the kingdom. You will be advised as long as you're a prince." The man said.

Noctis wasn't even sure who the man ordering him around was, but he was trying to give him orders and advises and Noctis didn't like it.

Noctis had gotten enough. "You can't order me to do something, I am the prince. I suggest you to keep your mouth shut or you'll find yourself from the graveyard...if you ever even get so far." Noctis smiled. "Just to let you know, and all of you too."

"But-"

"Get out of my castle!" Noctis shouted and got up from his chair.

"S-Sorry." The man stuttered frightened and exited the room as quick as he could, trying to be formal, but it wasn't a good try.

Noctis gave a murderous glare to the others. "You too idiots!" Noctis hit his fist on the marble table again, which made the marble to crack a little. "He's going to be executed tomorrow morning and the rest of you will get executed too if you haven't gotten out of my sight in 5 minutes. Please feel free to come to watch the executions, If you're quick enough."

All of them got up from their chairs quickly and most of them hurried to the doors right away without saying anything.

4 men stayed and bowed to Noctis and one man said with his voice trembling: "Sorry and thank you, your highness." The man said.

Noctis smirked and whistled to get the attetion of the rest of the men.

"Oh and the rest of you aren't allowed to quit your jobs if you manage to get out, you don't seem to have any manners." Noctis said little amused. "Or yes you can, but you're going to lose more than your jobs." Noctis said.

Noctis was so amused, he was looking forward to the next meeting to see how many people there was left.

Noctis pointed his finger at the 4 man who staid. "You're allowed to quit, fuck off." Noctis said.

"Thank you your highness." The other man said and the rest of them bowed and left.

"Dammit I hate this place." Noctis muttered out loud after the other people had left and then he exited the conference room and slammed the door shut.

Noctis didn't want to get married, he was too young. He didn't even know any girls, he didn't have time for that kind of stuff. Yes it was easy for commoners to say to marry someone, but he didn't even know any girls who he could even marry. He was also had commitment phobia, he didn't want to stay in one place and situation for the rest of his life...like he had to. Even if he'd find someone, he couldn't stay for long with that person and more likely he wouldn't ever find anyone, he knew that. But, he knew that the day would come when he'd have to marry someone, but still it came too quickly, he had to accept the fact that some princess would come here to marry him, but he would ignore her completely, he didn't want to get to know any other royals.

Noctis sighed, he threw his jacked away, he felt little sweaty. Noctis coughed and then he got a weird feeling. It was like something warm was flowing along his trachea.

Noctis touched his wound. He didn't feel anything unusual. The wound was like it used to be.

Then his breathing got heavy, Noctis felt like he had to vomit. Noctis went to the first washroom he could find, he never used them, but now he had to.

Noctis went in front of a sink and he leaned on the countertop of the sink. Noctis put his hand on his throat when he started to cough to rapidly that he felt like he couldn't breathe. The black marble and dark grey walls slowly started to change their color to more reddish, even though they were really dark colors, but so was his blood.

"Dammit!" Noctis coughed and wiped the blood off his mouth with his hand.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Lightning got up. She was able to move a little but it still hurt a lot to move, but fortunately Prompto had taken care of her, so she was feeling little better now.

Lightning didn't want to lay in bed all day so she decided to ignore the pain and go to have a look of the castle.

Lightning opened the door and entered the hallway. The hallway was so long that it looked like it would never end. Again, the walls of the hallway were painted with very dark colors.

_ "What's wrong with this place?"_ Lightning thought and walked carefully to not strain her wound. There were a compelete silence in the hallway, Lightning felt little uneasy to be in unknown place, which was like this.

Lightning walked down the hallway. The walls were filled with huge paintings and the floor was covered with blood red fitted carpet. As Lightning was trying to get to know the castle little better, the maids who were walking along the hallway gave her questioning looks.

_"I guess that this is the first time they've seen me. Maybe they're just curious." _Lightning though.

Lightning decided to ignore the maids and servants and she kept walking. She didn't pay too much attention on the people around her, until someone ran to her and hugged her from back.

"Ow, ow!" Lightning moaned of the pain and put her hand on her side, but Prompto was faster.

"Oh, sorry I didn't remember!" Prompto said and loosened his grip.

"Are you okay?" Prompto asked and rubbed the place where her wound was carefully. "You're okay." Prompto smiled.

"No, you shouldn't be sneaking around like that." Lightning said.

"Sorry, I just wanted to say hi." Prompto snickered.

"Your parents didn't do too well raising you." Lightning said.

"I can hug you again if you want." Prompto said and put his hands on the both sides of her waist. "Wow, you're so tiny."

"I mean...slender." Prompto grinned.

"Just keep your hands off me okay?" Lightning turned around and pushed his hand farther away.

"I can't guarantee that." Prompto smiled.

"I might not be in best condition right now, but I can still punch you…If you want." Lightning said to him.

"Oh, don't be so harsh." Prompto smiled.

"I meant that." Lightning said.

"Uh-oh I'm so scared." Prompto grinned.

"You-"

"Uh-oh, I guess I have to go. I gotta get to work, I'm late." Prompto gave a glimpse of his wristwatch.

"Where are you working?" Lightning asked curiously. "Mental hospital? Is that because you're so...weird?"

"In primary school, I'm a teacher." Prompto said. "I'm special, not weird." Prompto smiled.

Lightning burst out laughing.

"Ow." Lightning moaned of the pain and put her hands on her wound.

"What?" Prompto asked.

"Are you serious? You're a teacher?" Lightning giggled.

"What so funny about it?" Prompto asked.

"Nothing just go to work already." Lightning said with a slight laughter.

"Oh I almost forgot." Prompto looked at his wristwatch. "See you later, bye!" He said quickly and kissed Lightning's cheek and then he started to run down the hallway.

Lightning stared at him until he disappeared behind the corner and then she wiped her cheek with her hand.

"Idiot." Lightning muttered. She didn't want to be kissed by any men right now or to be kissed by strangers. Well, Prompto was friendly and funny, but after all she didn't know him, not well enough.

Lightning walked next to a maid who was polishing some small golden and silver decorations.

"Sorry?" Lightning said to the first maid who passed by.

The maid flinched when she saw Lightning.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The maid said looking eyeing Lightning from head to toe. "Do you need help...miss?"

"I'm sorry to bother you." Lightning said. "Is there a washroom somewhere? I'd like to wash my hands." Lightning asked, she decided to not to say that she'd like to wash her face since Prince's friend licked her.

Lightning felt slightly amused, by the choice of words in her mind. Unfortunately it was true, Lightning didn't want him to come so close to her.

"Um, yes we do." The maid said and pointed at the end of the hallway. "There's a washroom, at the end of the hallway." She said.

"Alright thanks." Lightning said and started to head back towards the end of the hallway.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis was sitting his back against the wall in the washroom, he felt so dizzy so that he had to sit down on the cold marble floor, which was stained of his blood.

Noctis was so tired. He shivered.

_ "Dammit, I shouldn't have taken that last shot with that pile of medicine."_ Noctis couched. _"Dammit I'm stupid."_

Noctis never asked for help, he had his pride. He didn't want people to see how weak he was, asking for help was a sign of weakness. He could cope with his problems by himself, or so hoped but he'd never ever ask anyone to help him.

He felt like he had to vomit.

Noctis couldn't hold it, he gagged but he ended up heaving just a huge pool of blood.

"_Holy shit."_ Noctis gasped for air, holding his throat with his other hand.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Lightning walked to the end of the hallway and there were numerous doors, they all were similar.

Lightning sighed.

Lightning decided to start from the first door in the middle off the others, she hated the castle, everything had to be so presentable and everything was too symmetric.

She opened the door and it was indeed a washroom. It was huge, there were only sinks and some other stuff, it didn't look like a washroom or a toilet at all. No showers, no tubs, no toilets, you name it.

_"How weird..." _Lightning thought and she went to the first sink and washed her hands and face.

Lightning grabbed the hand towel and she dried her hands and cheeks on it. The towel was so soft, Lightning took a better look of it. There were a large almost unnoticeable tribal-ish pattern of N and C twisted around each other.

_"Hm?"_ Lightning thought.

Then she looked at the other products on the counter of the sink. The same pattern was on hand soaps and some tubes of shampoo and something else, Lightning couldn't understand what all of the label said since they were written in some other language, Lightning couldn't speak any other languages than English.

"But no mirror?" Lightning said out loud little puzzled and put the towel on the counter if the sink.

Lightning turned around and she was about to leave but she got too curious, she wanted to have a look what were behind the partition wall.

Lightning walked back along the wall and walked into the other part of the washroom, everything was darker in there. Lightning didn't like it at all, somehow the dark colors made her to feel depressed and little afraid...in a way, it was childish and ridiculous but it was true.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Lightning heard a silky and angry voice behind her, she flinched and turned around.

"Fuck off." Noctis coughed.

"Oh my god." Lightning said quietly, lifting her hand in front of her mouth. "Are you oka-" Lightning tried to come closer to him.

Noctis summoned his swords and surrounded Lightning with them. "I've warned you." Noctis gritted his teeth, it required quite much strength to keep the swords floating, he was quite weak now, he felt like he'd faint at any moment. He couldn't think too clearly either partly because he was drunk. He wouldn't be able to control the swords properly if he wouldn't be able to concentrate.

Lightning stared at the swords and then at Noctis with a terrified and concerned expression on her face.

"Let me help you, I won't hurt you. I promise." Lightning said. "You need help."

"Get back to your room, I'm not on a good mood." Noctis said his arm shaking a little, he couldn't maintain the swords floating for a long time anymore.

There was a long silence.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Have you done something to yourself?!" Lightning asked little irritated by his reckless and arrogant behavior.

"You'd better to follow my orders, get out or I'll put you to death here and right now." Noctis said and tried to get up.

The swords dropped down creating various clunk sounds. Noctis had to sit down again. He muttered something to himself and leaned his head against the wall, the blood started to flow slowly from the corner of his mouth. Noctis wiped his lips to the sleeve of his jacket.

Noctis wasn't able to say anything; he looked at the floor and coughed again, the blood splattering all over the place.

Lightning went next to him and put her right hand on his chin and turned his head so he had to look at her. His skin felt cold and but still soft flawless.

Lightning looked into his eyes, she could see pain and little embarrassment in his deep blue eyes.

Noctis blushed. "Stop staring at me bi-" Noctis said to her to hide the fact that how nervous he was. "Don't touch me!" Noctis said and pushed her hand away.

"No, calm down." Lightning said and looked straight into his eyes. "What did you do to yourself?"

"Nothing, get your hands off me!" Noctis gritted his teeth.

"Where does the blood come from? Where does it hurt?" Lightning asked concerned, she might not like him, but she couldn't leave him there alone in that condition.

Noctis took a deep breath. "Get out." Noctis said. "Out of my castle." He said weakly and coughed.

"This might hurt a little, I'll just check." Lightning put her hand on his throat and squeezed it carefully.

Noctis moaned and grimaced, he pushed her hand aside again. "How dare you?." Noctis said.

"Are you a smoker?" Lightning asked seriously.

"No." Noctis said and turned his head away and coughed.

"Did you do anything unusual today then?" Lightning asked.

"No." Noctis said and gritted his teeth. "Get out, leave me alone. You're not allowed to touch me."

"I don't care, I'll wait here until you bleed to death." Lightning said.

Noctis didn't answer.

"What happened?" Lightning asked. "I want to help you, I can see that you're in pain, don't deny it."

Noctis grabbed Lightning by the jaw and held her head tightly in place. "I took my drugs with alcohol, happy now?" Noctis said angrily and let go of her.

Lightning stared at him worried and little shocked as Noctis turned his head away, avoiding direct eye contact.

_"So this is why he smells like alcohol all the time."_ Lightning thought.

Lightning grabbed Noctis by the collar. "Are you crazy?! Why the hell did you do that?" Lightning asked with mixed emotions.

"None of your business." Noctis said coldly and pushed Lightning roughly farther away that her head almost hit the wall which was behind her back.

"We're going to infirmary, you might have internal bleeding or something, let's go." Lightning said.

"I'm not going anywhere, I don't need help, I'll solve my problems by myself." Noctis said arrogantly.

"Shut up and give me your cellphone." Lightning said and stretched her hand out towards him.

"No way, you have no permission to touch my personal belongings especially when they're prince's belongings." Noctis said and got on his knees to vomit, but he couldn't, only the blood was flowing down his chin and dripping on the black marble floor.

Lightning leaned forward and patted and rubbed his back lightly. "Try to breathe and give me your cellphone." Lightning said.

"Take your hands off me!" Noctis said and tried to get back in sitting position, but he didn't have enough energy to do that.

Noctis swore something quietly his arms shaking, trying to support the weight of his upper body.

Lightning grabbed him by his waist and helped him up, which was rather difficult by the size difference between him and her.

"Stop protesting, give me your cellphone." Lightning said to Noctis, holding him by the waist and letting him to partly lean against her.

"Can't you understand what I'm saying?! I don't need help!." Noctis shouted and tried to push Lightning farther away so that he would lean completely on the wall, with no support.

"Give your cellphone to me or otherwise I have to hurt you." Lightning said and put her other hand on his throat.

"How dare you?" Noctis gritted his teeth. "I'm starting to regret that I spared your life, I'll get you executed since you're harming me."

"You cannot do that if you're dead idiot, did you just lose your sanity?" Lightning asked irritated and slid her hand on the place where his Adam's apple was and pressed it.

Noctis flinched and moaned of the pain and as Lightning moved her hand down, he started coughing nonstop. There was forming a small pool of blood on the floor of the amount of blood which he was losing.

Noctis tried to take short breaths in between the coughing, he was struggling to get some oxygen. He started to turn pale, of the blood loss and of the lack of oxygen.

Lightning slid her hand back up and rubbed his neck gently.

Noctis stopped coughing and he began breathing quickly and very shallowly.

"Cellphone." Lightning said.

Noctis took his cellphone out of his pocket and gave it to Lightning.

Lightning took the phone and patted Noctis' chest. "Take deep breaths." Lightning said.

"What's Prompto's number?" Lightning asked.

"Look it up from the address book idiot." Noctis coughed.

Lightning ignored his insult.

It took a while to find the address book from his complicated and ridiculously fancy smartphone. She wasn't even sure how to use a normal cellphone, since she hadn't had one before.

"Where did you get such a complicated cellphone?" Lightning asked from Noctis and called to Prompto.

It took a little while before Prompto picked up the phone.

"I've told you to not to call me when I'm working, you never call me anyway, what's wrong?" Prompto spoke to the phone with little tired voice, with a lot of background voices, mostly voices of people talking.

"Sorry, you must come to see Noctis. I don't really know what's happening to him, but he's not feeling well, he's spitting blood also." Lightning said.

"Oh." Lightning heard Prompto saying with surprised voice. "Well okay, I'll come as soon as possible. Look after him for a while, give him water or something if he needs, don't be offended if he doesn't let you help, he's always like that." Prompto said.

"Okay." Lightning said.

"Alright, bye." Prompto said and hung up the phone.

"Okay, thanks." Lightning said and gave the phone back to Noctis. "Do you need water or something? I'll go to get you some if you need." Lightning said and looked at him, but Noctis was still avoiding getting in direct eye contact.

"No." Noctis said quietly.

"Where does it hurt? Neck only or?" Lightning asked.

"You don't do anything with that kind of information, stop asking stupid questions." Noctis said.

"I'm just trying to help, stop acting like you were a tough guy who never needs anyone's help when you're not." Lightning said.

"I don't need help." Noctis said. "Stop offending me or I'll slaughter you."

"Are you drunk or something? Or aren't you just listening?" Lightning asked.

Noctis tried to say something but he decided to remain silent since he didn't feel like he had the energy for that.

"Are you tired?" Lightning asked and hesitated but then she lightly and carefully stroke his silky and little messy hair. She just wanted to make him feel better, most men seemed to like when they were touched like that, with care, but Lightning wasn't sure if he liked it since he seemed to not to like her but Lightning decided to try anyway.

Noctis turned his head and looked at Lightning with confused and surprised expression on his face.

"Sorry." Lightning said.

"No, it's okay." Noctis said with confused voice tone and he turned his face away again.

Lightning was little surprised now too by his nice behavior.

"Are you sure that you don't need anything?" Lightning asked.

"Yes." Noctis said. "Let go of me, you don't have to support me, I can lean against the wall."

"No." Lightning said, he was quite heavy and not too easy to support, but Lightning didn't really mind, she just wanted to help. "I want to make sure that you won't hurt yourself."

Noctis didn't say anything.

"Sorry that I hurt you, I wouldn't have wanted to, but I don't have a cellphone or Prompto's number." Lightning said.

"I don't care." Noctis said.

"Of what?" Lightning asked.

"Anything."

"How so?" Lightning asked little puzzled by his answer.

"None of your business."

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis felt really sleepy, he wasn't at the mood of talking, but still he was confused that why was Lightning being so nice to him even though he acted so coldly towards her.

"None of your business?" Lightning repeated.

"Do I have to repeat?." Noctis asked.

Lightning sighed and didn't say anything.

Noctis tried to find out her intentions, why was she behaving so oddly? She used to be nice but at the same time she could be really irritating, she even intentionally hurt him, but after that she tried to make him feel better. Noctis wasn't sure that should he act nicely or coldly towards her.

Even thinking was quite difficult now, he was little drunk and the blood loss made thinking even harder.

"Is everything okay? Are you dizzy?" Lightning asked.

"No, I'm okay." Noctis said. His throat was aching really badly and as he said something, he started to cough which caused a lot of pain.

Noctis put his hand on his throat automatically, as if it would relieve the pain a little.

"Let me." Lightning said.

Noctis turned his head a little to look at Lightning, he was completely lost, he had no idea what she meant.

"I have some knowledge of human anatomy. I know some little things which may make you feel better , let me help." Lightning said. "I won't hurt you."

Noctis hesitated but then he took his hand off his throat.

Lightning put her hand on his throat carefully.

"I'll just massage your neck a little, it should make you feel little better. Say if it hurts." Lightning said and pressed a little and slid her hand along his neck to his jaw and back down.

Noctis grimaced but he didn't say anything, it made breathing little easier, but it hurt a lot.

Lightning stopped when she saw his reaction. "Did it hurt?" Lightning asked.

"No." Noctis lied.

"Liar." Lightning said. "I'll be more careful. You must tell me if it hurts." Lightning said.

"However." Noctis said like he wouldn't care.

Lightning sighed and continued what she was doing, but now more gently.

Noctis tilted his head slightly backwards to reveal more of his neck, it actually started to feel good.

Noctis tried to not to smile, but his mouth corners slightly rose up, he felt so good that somebody touched him with such carefulness, even though he didn't even know this girl but she actually seemed like she wanted to make him feel better. Noctis didn't receive this kind of attention and luxury too often. Technically never, so he tried to enjoy.

"How about now?" Lightning asked.

"Thanks." Noctis said shortly.

Lightning took her hand off his throat. "Good." Lightning said.

There was quite long silence.

Noctis looked at Lightning who was sitting next to him, her other arm wrapped around his waist.

Noctis found her really attractive. She was really feminine but she had quite strong personality. Actually he liked that kind of girls who actually had some attitude too. He was slowly starting to like her, but he knew that she didn't like him. Noctis knew that he wasn't able to make her to like him so he didn't really care that how he treated her, he was going to get what he wanted if she liked it or not.

The side effects of drinking too much started to kick in.

Noctis put his other hand on his forehead trying to relieve the pain by the slight coolness of his hands, which slightly helped for a really short period of time. It was typical to him to get a headache, becoming nauseated and thirsty and start to tremble when he had a hangover. It was a horrible feeling, he didn't want to start coughing or gagging at the time, it hurt enough already.

Noctis swore quietly and tried to get up. "I have to go to get some water, let go of me." Noctis said and pushed Lightning aside and he tried to get up and he managed to do that but he tripped almost right away and almost fell over but Lightning managed to take a hold of him.

"Sit down, I'll get some water for you." Lightning said. "Don't move, you'll hurt yourself.

"No, I don't need anyone to help me." Noctis said. "I can't sit here whole day, I have to take some rest."

"Resting isn't a solution for this, what's wrong with you?" Lightning asked.

Noctis looked at Lightning, he was quite pissed off by now. "I have to sober up okay?!" Noctis said to her with irritated and loud voice.

"You're not going anywhere drunkard, you'll sober up here." Lightning said. "It's your fault that you went and drunk too much."

"Stop that, I'm feeling bad enough already." Noctis said and held his forehead.

"Do you feel nauseated or what?" Lightning asked.

"No." Noctis lied. He didn't want to seem weak in her eyes, he had his pride.

"I consider that as a yes." Lightning said and got up. "Wait here."

Lightning walked to the sink and took a glass and filled it with water and came back and offered the glass for him. "I'm sorry your highness, I hope that you won't mind to drink tap water, I couldn't find bottled water." Lightning said.

Noctis gave her a murderous look. "I'm not taking it, tap water or not." Noctis said and coughed.

"Stop being so arrogant." Lightning said and put the edge of the glass on his lips. "Do I have to force you to drink it?" Lightning lowered down on his level and tilted his head slightly back.

"How dare you humiliate me?" Noctis muttered and swiped the glass off her hand so that it hit the marble floor and broke into million pieces.

Noctis rose on his knees and grabbed Lightning by the throat and pinned her against the wall.

"I have my limits too, you've crossed them many times by now, I'm not so weak that I couldn't strangle you." Noctis said with irritated voice. "I've warned you many times, I don't usually warn anybody."

"Well go ahead, let us both die then." Lightning said. "You're not accepting help, because you have such big ego that's what it's all about."

"I can do many other unpleasant things before I kill you too." Noctis said to her calmly. "Nobody talks me like that with no consequences."

"Go ahead." Lightning said sarcastically and smiled.

Noctis was quiet, he was confused. He wasn't able to think very clearly at the time, but he was able to be confused by her indifference. She didn't seem to care, for real. She didn't seem to be afraid.

"What takes so long? You have my permission." Lightning said.

Noctis rose his head and looked at her. "Why don't you care?" Noctis asked quietly.

Lightning grinned. "I know how humans behave and respond to other human's behavior."

Noctis was quiet, it was so confusing, he had no idea what she was talking about.

"You're so confused." Lightning smiled. "You don't know what to do, but soon you'll let go of me."

Noctis didn't say anything, he was trying to find out that what was she trying to achieve.

"Are you trying to manipulate me?" Noctis asked and loosened his grip a little.

"Nope." Lightning smiled.

"I don't understand." Noctis looked at the floor and shook his head.

"I told you that."

Noctis let go of her.

"Sorry." Noctis said.

"People are so simple." Lightning said and rubbed her neck.

"Are you okay?" Noctis asked, he was little surprised by his own behavior now too, he was never worried of anybody.

"Yes, don't go anywhere. I go get you some water." Lightning said and tried to get up, but Noctis put her hand on her shoulder and didn't let her to stand up.

"No, you're not going anywhere." Noctis said and slid his hand across her neck. "Did I hurt you? Your neck is completely red, does it hurt?"

Lightning rolled her eyes and pushed his hand aside. "You're easily to be manipulated, I knew that you aren't as cold-hearted as you make other people to believe. Good try though." Lightning said.

"You don't know me." Noctis said.

"I agree. Do you eat some other drugs than antibiotics too?" Lightning asked.

Noctis stared at her confused. "Huh? What? No." Noctis said.

"Goodbye my sanity." Lightning said.

"Huh?"

"Forget it." Lightning said. "Can you please let go of me?" Lightning said.

Noctis let go of her.

"I don't understand what does it take for so long to Prompto to come." Lightning said. "I'm little worried."

Noctis didn't answer.

"Why are you so nice to me? Why do you even care? I was so rude to you." Noctis said and leaned little forward to see her face while she stared at the floor.

"Every life is precious." Lightning said.

"Huh?"

Lightning turned her head and looked at Noctis. "To put it simply, it's not polite to let people die if you can do something about it." Lightning said. "And if you can't, then it's not polite to leave the dying person alone either. You might not know how it feels like to be left alone, I know." Lightning sighed.

Noctis was quiet and stared at Lightning, suddenly he felt himself so guilty of everything what he had done, and how he had treated her.

"What are you staring at?" Lightning asked.

Noctis felt horrible. She was right and she said that she have been in a situation like that too. Maybe he was too? Then he remembered the things what he had done to millions and millions of people.

"I deserve it." Noctis said. "I'm so horrible person, am I?" Noctis sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Deserve what?" Lightning asked.

"To die." Noctis sighed.

"N-" Lightning tried to say.

"...Alone, it's not polite to help me." Noctis said. "To be honest, actually I seriously considered that should I molest you or kill you, or both." Noctis said and stared at the floor, avoiding direct eye contact.

"Sorry, I am a horrible person. I shouldn't have even thought about things like that. I can't believe that why are you still there, aren't you afraid at all if I do something to you because I have already considered it?" Noctis said.

"Every life is precious, horrible person or not." Lightning said. "I can't deny it."

Noctis didn't know why, but he felt like his feelings had been hurt, he didn't know why, he thought that he didn't have feelings anymore.. He never felt joy or things like that, alcohol made him to feel bad and sometimes he got angry, but he didn't think that he'd be able to feel happiness, remorse or empathy, let alone love or devotion. There wasn't anything anymore which could hurt his feelings, but now some feelings had returned.

Noctis tugged his hair lightly _"Impossible." _Noctis thought and turned his head to look at Lightning. _"It can't be because of her, I don't know her and I hate her but it can't be because the insult only." _

Noctis felt like he had to vomit, but he put his hand over his mouth when he gagged. Noctis grimaced, the pain returned which was even worse than before, now he started to cough.

Lightning patted his back carefully. "Are you okay?" Lightning asked with worried voice tone.

Noctis couldn't say anything, he tried but it just made him cough even more.

"Lift your head up." Lightning said and put her hand under his jaw and pushed it upwards.

Noctis lifted his head up and wiped his bloody hand on the sleeve of his jacket.

"Don't ruin your jacket idiot, you're wasting your money and the resources of the nature." Lightning said and grabbed a small hand towel from the hook on the wall.

"Use this." Lightning said and stretched out her hand to give it to Noctis. "You can wash it later and I'm sure that it isn't as expensive as your fancy fancy jackets."

"No, I'm okay." Noctis said and coughed so that some of the blood splattered on Lightning and the blood started to flow down Noctis' chin.

Noctis got on his knees and wiped the blood spatters off her face. "I'm sorry." Noctis said and spit a mouthful of blood on the floor and he wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his jacket.

"You're not listening." Lightning said and wiped the blood off his mouth and chin with the towel. "You're so immature."

"Sorry, you don't have to. I can do it by myself." Noctis said.

"No you can't, just look how helpless you are." Lightning said and grabbed him by his wrist to clean his hands.

Noctis felt really helpless indeed, he was so embarrassed that he let a woman to take care of him like this, especially when they didn't know each other.

Noctis didn't answer.

"Your hands are trembling, are you cold?" Lightning asked and let go of his hands and wiped the most of the blood off his black military type leather jacket.

"...No." Noctis sighed embarrassed. "I'm just drunk."

"What makes you to drink in the middle of the day? I know that it's Friday, but you've started little too early." Lightning asked and grabbed Noctis by the wrist and put the towel in his hand.

_"What should I say?" _Noctis thought, he didn't want her to know that he wasn't using alcohol as it should be used, it was really embarrassing to not to be able to drink all day and all night, but he couldn't help it.

"Did you hear me?" Lightning asked and waved her hands in front of Noctis.

Noctis got back to the reality. "I-I just took one shot because my friend offered it to me. I can't tolerance a lot of alcohol at once, I get drunk very easily." Noctis lied.

Lightning looked at him with questioning expression on her face, but she didn't say anything but: "Alright."

"Are you sick or do you look like that all the time?" Lightning asked. "Or do you have some kind of disease?"

"What?"

"You have dark circles under your eyes and your skin and hair is in really bad shape and I don't think that it's natural to be that pale either. Do you ever eat anything or do you have to be on a diet all the time , because you're a prince?" Lightning asked.

"I don't know, I just don't know." Noctis sighed tiredly and closed his eyes for a moment.

"Doesn't look like it." Lightning said. "And it's not time to take a nap, you can sleep at night."

"I don't get a lot of sleep. I'm just a little tired, don't worry."

"You have bad habits, take ahold of yourself." Lightning said.

"It's not that easy." Noctis sighed tiredly.

"I know, but it doesn't mean that you couldn't try." Lightning said.

"I don't know if I want to or if I can. I have to have something, which brings some variation to my life." Noctis said and held his hand on his forehead. "Sorry, I'm tired, drunk and I have a headache, I might speak about something what doesn't make sense and I more likely won't remember anything tomorrow morning, just to let you know." Noctis said.

Lightning sighed.

"Sorry."

"Not my problem." Lightning said.

Noctis was quiet until he got a sudden urge to throw up.

"Pardon me." Noctis said and pushed Lightning away and dropped on his knees and tried to vomit, but he ended up heaving a horrible amount of blood and as he stopped gagging the blood just kept flowing down his chin and neck from his mouth.

"I actually feel quite weak by now." Noctis said calmly but then he got on his knees again and he heaved a huge a horrible amount of blood.

Lightning wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him up, then she pulled him into a hug and pushed his head a little so he'd rest his head on her shoulder.

"What the fuck?" Noctis said confused and coughed.

"You cannot lean forward or you bleed to death. Breathe though your nose." Lightning said. "I'm just trying to help, you like it or not."

Noctis hugged Lightning carefully. "Thank you." Noctis said little happy that he just got a hug.

"No problem." Lightning said.

Noctis started to cough again continually and he tried to get out of Lightning's grip. "Sorry, please let go of me, I don't want to hurt you." Noctis said.

"Nuh-uh, you're not going anywhere, don't worry it's okay, I've been in situations like this before." Lightning said and patted his back and he stopped coughing.

"Thanks." Noctis said and rubbed his neck and pulled back a little to see Lightning. There were some of his blood on her face too.

Noctis wiped most of the blood off her cheeks. "Sorry, I didn't mean to." Noctis said. "Do you want to go to get a shower?"

"No, I'm fine." Lightning said. "Are you cold? You're trembling."

"No." Noctis said and put his hand on top of his mouth. "Move, move!" Noctis said quickly and tried to get as far away from her as possible, but Lightning didn't let go of him.

Noctis couldn't hold it and he heaved more blood right over Lightning's shoulder and most of the blood splattered on her clothes.

Lightning rubbed Noctis' back. "It's more comfortable to be in this position, isn't it?" Lightning said. "How do you feel? Are you dizzy?"

"I'm so sorry! Please forgive me." Noctis said. "Now your clothes are completely soaked by my blood. Can you let go of me? I don't want that to happen again. Don't worry, I'll buy you new cl-"

Lightning put her index finger on Noctis mouth. "Hush hush, it's okay. You're far more important than my clothes, you're ridiculous."

Noctis stared at Lightning quietly. "Aren't you here to kill me, not help me?" Noctis asked. "I'm not important, not for _you_."

"You don't know what I have been ordered to do." Lightning said. "I might be a soldier, but I'm a normal human being at the same time, I understand how important the ruler is for the kingdom."

Noctis sighed. "I understand, but I'm not as important as you think." Noctis said and tried to seek comfort by crossing his arms on his chest and hugging himself.

"What's wrong with you? Is everything okay?" Lightning asked, confused by his behavior.

Noctis blushed, he had tried to keep his barriers up, but now he had forgotten that there was someone else in the room too. "I-I'm just cold." Noctis tried to explain.

"Doesn't look like it." Lightning said. "Is something wrong?"

"None of your business." Noctis said.

"Tell me." Lightning said. "Are you unhappy?"

Noctis looked into Lightning's eyes and then turned his face away. "No." Noctis lied.

"Liar." Lightning said. "Do you have too much work to do or something?"

"No."

Lightning sighed.

Lightning heard the door opening and soon Prompto came to them.

"What took so long?!" Lightning almost shouted to Prompto.

"Sorry, there's many rooms in this castle." Prompto smiled. "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know, I can't see any open wounds, he's only coughing blood." Lightning said. "Please help him."

"D'awwww you two are so cute, how did Noctis let you to hug him?" Prompto snickered.

"You shouldn't have said that." Noctis said with low and threatening voice and he tried to get up.

Lightning grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back down. "Stop it, he's just joking, calm down."

"Nobody insults me, not without consequences!" Noctis said to Lightning with loud irritated voice.

Lightning put her hand on Noctis mouth. "Shut up and turn around, I don't want to be here all day."

Noctis sighed. "Fine" Noctis said and turned around to face Prompto.

Prompto put on a plastic glove. "Alright." Prompto said and pressed Noctis' throat.

Noctis moaned with a wince on his face.

"Don't press so hardly, you're hurting him." Lightning said.

Prompto stared at Lightning confused. "Huh?" Prompto said.

"Don't hurt him, can't you understand?!" Lightning said with little louder voice. "He feels bad enough already!"

Prompto was silent for a moment.

"Aren't you angry to him?" Prompto asked.

"Yes!" Lightning said irritated. "Help him and stop talking!"

"...Okay, sorry." Prompto said and pressed Noctis' throat again.

Noctis grimaced and started to cough.

"Are you okay?" Lightning asked and patted his back.

"No." Noctis coughed.

"Okay, let me see." Prompto said and tilted Noctis' head back. "Mm." Prompto mumbled and flipped over his first aid kit to get all of the stuff out at once.

"I want to know." Lightning said.

"I guess that the knife almost pierced his trachea and when he did a too rapid movement or something else, it probably made his throat to tear completely open." Prompto said.

"And because he ostensibly hasn't taken care of the wound properly, he might have gotten a blood poisoning and the alcohol and drugs just fucked up his body, he's screwed." Prompto said like it wouldn't be new to him.

Lightning didn't say anything, she was so worried, that she didn't know that what should she say.

"Calm down, you'll go into shock and die." Prompto snickered to Lightning and took a small bottle of transparent liquid in it.

"Thanks." Prompto said. "Okay, this should work." He took a small bottle of transparent liquid in it.

"This is the new special medicine which can patch internal wounds. It only makes a thin layer on the wound, so that it won't bleed anymore, but it takes time to heal up completely. So be careful to not to make too rapid movements." Prompto said to Noctis.

"And because this liquid we don't need surgeries anymore, which is good since I'm not a surgeon." Prompto smiled to Lightning.

"Cover his eyes; he doesn't want to see this." Prompto said to Lightning.

"What the hell, what are you going to do if it's too hard to watch at?" Noctis tried to shout, but his voice wasn't cooperating.

"Okay Lightning, cover his eyes." Prompto said.

Lightning hesitated but then she covered Noctis' eyes. "I'm sorry." Lightning said and moved some of his locks aside.

Prompto took a huge needle and poured all the liquid in the needle then he tapped the needle.

Lightning froze when she saw the size of the needle, but she didn't have time to protest when Prompto already pushed the needle through Noctis' throat.

Noctis squirmed in pain. He couldn't protest, since the needle was so deep in his trachea.

"It'll be over soon, you'll feel a lot better after that." Lightning said to comfort him. She wouldn't never act like that towards grown men, especially when she didn't know them well not to mention that they basically were her enemies, but now she had the feeling to try to help Noctis, maybe she just felt bad for him.

Prompto pulled the needle out.

Lightning took her hands off Noctis eyes and rubbed his neck carefully. "Does it feel better now?" Lightning asked.

Noctis flinched of her touch. Yes it hurt, but it was quite new to him that a female touched him with such a care.

"Uh-huh." Noctis said and turned his head a little to smile at Lightning. "Thanks."

Prompto gave a juice box to Noctis. "You'd better to drink or eat something and go to rest after that or you might faint." Prompto said.

"So I don't have to work?" Noctis said and rubbed his neck carefully.

"Don't get your hopes up yet. I got something for you." Prompto smirked.

"I'm not taking it." Noctis said.

"Do whatever you want." Prompto said and handed over some antibiotics for him.

"If you don't eat these, you die. If you eat these with alcohol, you die. Do you understand?" Prompto said to Noctis. "These are stronger antibiotics, they help the wound shut, but if you take alcohol, then it'll open again and if that happens, the liquid which I just injected to you, goes into your blood circulation and you'll get an heart attack immediately."

"Dammit." Noctis muttered and took the antibiotics from him.

"Okay we're done then." Prompto said. "I gotta head back to the school now." Prompto said and left the room.

Lightning and Noctis looked at Prompro little confused that how quickly the problem was solved as he left.

Lightning got up. "Maybe you should go to rest a little, you've lost a lot of blood, don't say that you're not feeling weak or dizzy."

"I'm not." Noctis said and got up but he tripped almost right away.

Lightning managed to get up and take a grab him by the arm before he fell over.

"You're not listening, you're too arrogant, you're acting like a child." Lightning said.

"However." Noctis sighed.

"Take support on me so I'll take you to the door of your room, okay?" Lightning said. "Just let me know that where it is."

"However."

Lightning sighed.


	4. Hooked

**A/N: Read & Enjoy & Review. Thanks for those who have reviewed and thanks for faving my story too :) I love all of you!**

* * *

Noctis rubbed his chin, he haven't gotten any paperwork done this week. There were huge piles of the paperwork on his desk surrounding him. There were papers all over the room's floor.

Noctis sighed. This was going to be a long day. He took a pile of papers and started to read them. In the first pile were a lot of pleas. He hated to work on them, they made him drowsy.

He had to read the first, and then consider what he should answer. Yes or no? After that he took a copy of the paper and signed the both papers. Then he sorted them in their own piles.

And repeated that, again and again and again…

He couldn't concentrate, he wasn't a patient person. Now when he was using the antibiotics he didn't want to get into trouble again by mixing them with alcohol. He had promised that to himself two times now. He sighed.

He went to the doorway and shouted to one of the maids "Hey, get some coffee for me! Go, go! I don't have all day" He shouted and went back into his office.

He wasn't a coffee person; he just thought that it would help him to stay awake. The maid came in with the tray. There was coffee and cookies on it.

"Do you want to me to serve this to you here your highness?" The maid asked looking around for a place to place the tray.

"No, you can place it here." Noctis swept one pile of papers off the desk.

The maid looked at him abashed and placed the tray there were the papers just were.

"Thanks, now get out of here" Noctis said rubbing his forehead.

"It's my pleasure your highness, have a good day." She bowed a little and exited the room.

Noctis reached to the coffee cup to take a sip. He knocked the coffee cup over, burning his hand.

"Dammit!" Noctis yelled out loud.

He wasn't too sure what he should do now, he was never taught what to do in situations like this. When he was a kid, he always had babysitter or someone else to look that he wouldn't do anything stupid or hurt himself. When he got himself hurt, there was always someone who made sure his wounds got treated.

Now when he was an adult, he didn't accept any help if he got wounded or something. He was lucky that he had Prompto. Prompto's father was a medic, he taught Prompto how to heal people so he had all knowledge he needed to heal people.

Noctis ignored the burn in his hand. It'll be fine.

Noctis touched the wound on his neck, it was still sore, but it have gotten better. He barely even noticed that he had it.

That made him to think about Lightning. He wanted to know, that how she was, but he hadn't seen her since last week.

He rose up from his chair went to the hallway and headed towards to Lightning's room.

Noctis knocked Lightning's room's door. Lightning came and opened the door.

"Hi." Noctis said

"Um, hi." Lightning answered.

Silence.

"So why did you come here?" Lightning asked

"I can't work." Noctis blurted and he blushed of the embarrassment, he tried to come up with a proper answer but he ended up making himself look like a fool.

"_Gosh I don't even know how to talk to people, especially to girls. I made myself to look so stupid in front of her eyes."_ Noctis thought, he started to regret that he even came there.

Lightning had very questioning expression on her face.

"Umm, come in then." Lightning opened the door for him.

"Thanks." Noctis said with little huskier voice to make himself to regain the remaining pieces of his self-respect and manliness.

"...No problem, this is your room at the end of the day." Lightning said.

"Please stop that, I don't want to be treated like that just because I'm the prince." Noctis said. "This is your room."

"I'm sorry." Lightning sat down on a chair and Noctis sat down on the chair opposite the chair where Lightning was sitting, he didn't dare to go any closer.

"Um, can I ask why everything here is black? You are always wearing black clothes too." Lightning asked.

_Lightning looked from head to toe. He was wearing black jeans and black v neck t-shirt. He also had that biker glove on his right arm all the time. Even though his clothes were too black for her taste, they looked quite good on him. He looked good._

_Lightning couldn't do anything but just to admit that he was handsome. His eyes were dark blue and intensive, h__is jaw line was very strong and rugged. His shoulders were broad and his back formed a v shape, he was quite muscular too and he was tall._

_Lightning liked his hair, even though it was almost pitch black. She liked the fact that his hair had a slight trace of blue in it. She liked the natural shape of his hair; she had never seen anyone having that kind of spikes in anyone's hair. _

_His traits were ideal. He might be the most handsome guy she had ever seen._

Lightning woke up from her daydream.

"_Stop staring at him, you look ridiculous when you're staring him like that."_ Lightning thought, trying to clear her mind again.

Noctis answered. "I'm not sure, I guess I like black or something." Noctis stared the floor and twiddled his thumbs nervously.

"I see. What did you mean when you said that you can't work?" Lightning asked, the situation made her to feel really awkward.

"Uhm well..." Noctis tried to come up with an excuse "I-I can't concentrate, I have too much to do and think about at the same time." Noctis stuttered.

Noctis just wanted to see Lightning, he was too shy to admit it.

"I'm sorry to hear that, maybe you should take a day off so you could relax a little so it would be easier to work the next day." Lightning said.

"It sounds good, but I can't take a day off, I'm the prince. I must looks after this kingdom, every day." Noctis sighed.

"Princes need a day off sometimes too. You're straining yourself too much." Lightning said.

Noctis was enjoying himself when he was talking to her, she didn't seem to care how awkwardly he behaved. On the other hand he felt really nervous since we was constantly trying to think what to say and when to not to embarrass himself.

"Maybe I'll take a day off, tomorrow or something I'm not sure. It would help me a lot. Thanks." Noctis sighed.

"No problem." Lightning smiled.

"Um, is there something that I can do for you? Is there someone you can spend time with here? I don't want you to be lonely." Noctis asked and he felt his face turning red and he changed his position so that he could cover his cheeks a little with his hands without looking like a complete jerk.

"I guess Prompto will follow me anywhere I go, he's an interesting person." Lightning said. "And sometimes very annoying. Sometimes I feel really irritated that he's always following me from place to place." Lightning smiled.

"Oh okay..." Noctis said silently. He wasn't too happy to hear that, he would want Lightning to spend time with him, not with Prompto. But in principle it wasn't even possible, he had too much other things to occupy himself.

"Okay, well umm...How old are you?" Noctis asked and rubbed his jawline up and down nervously.

"Haha it's not polite ton ask questions like that from a acquaintance." Lightning smiled.

Noctis looked at Lightning for a second looking little embarrassed and confused and then he concerned on staring at the floor again. "Ha-haha...I-I'm sorry." Noctis stuttered awkwardly.

_"Good Noctis, Good. You shouldn't have said that idiot." _The voice inside of his head said. Noctis would have wanted to take his words back.

"I'm joking, don't be so serious." Lighting said. "I'm quite old already. I am 21 years old." Lightning said with a slight laughter.

"T-That's not old, that's the best age you can be in." Noctis said little sadly." Don't waste it."

She could hear lubricious tone of his voice, she was little worried.

"How old are you then?" Lightning asked.

"I'm 22." Noctis said. "I'm 23 in December."

"That's not old either, you're just 2 years older than me." Lightning said. "What day have you born?" Lightning asked.

"24th" Noctis said, he hoped that she wouldn't start to talk about Christmas, he had been almost picked on because he was born in Christmas.

"So you get a birthday and Christmas presents at the same day? How cool is that." Lightning smiled.

Noctis sighed. "I haven't gotten presents, not since my mom died." Noctis said. "I'm a grown man."

Lightning looked at him surprised. "Oh...how old were you at the time?" Lightning asked.

"Six." Noctis said.

"What?"

"What what?" Noctis asked little annoyed, he didn't like to talk about his childhood. He would rather to forget all about his childhood if he could.

"I feel so bad for you, Christmas is one of the best moments of the year for kids because they get presents and other nice things. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't even have time to enjoy it." Lightning said looking at Noctis feeling compassion for him.

Noctis turned his head away, he couldn't look at her even though he would really wanted to. Noctis tried to look somewhere else but straight to her. Noctis knew that it was impolite to not to look at the person while you were talking to her or when she was talking to him. Noctis just couldn't do it, he was struggling to talk to good looking people, he didn't feel himself good enough to be spoken to, they'd judge him right away.

"Is everything okay? Why are you so nervous?" Lightning asked.

Noctis lifted his head to look at Lightning. "Y-Yes I am, sorry. I just...I have a lot on my mind." Noctis said trying to smile with his face red while Lightning was looking at him with questioning look.

"Like what?" Lightning asked. "Don't worry you can tell me, I'm not a therapist, but at least I can listen to you."

"I'm sorry to cause so much trouble, I should be talking too much of these things to you, you'll get bored and depressed." Noctis said. "I-I-"

"No it's okay, go ahead." Lightning said.

"I just have the feeling that I'm so old already, life have gone past so quickly and I haven't done pretty much anything." Noctis said rubbing his neck.

"Don't be sad, you have a whole life ahead of you. You have time to do all kind of things, what you want." Lightning tried smiled. "What's wrong with you? You have everything you want and still you seem to be so unhappy."

"I have to get married soon. The kingdom needs a king. I'm lucky that my father didn't have time to arrange me a marriage...I really umm." Noctis said nervously. "I don't think that I don't want to marry anyone yet."

"What do you mean that your dad didn't have time to arrange you a marriage?" Lightning asked.

"He disappeared suddenly when I was 16 years old and he didn't come back. Some people still believe that he will return, but I've been told that we cannot wait any longer so I must marry someone so I will become the king what people need. I have no way out." Noctis ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.

Lightning was stunned. _"He was so young when he had to start to take care of the kingdom. He couldn't do any things what other young adults did." She thought._

Lightning understood why he was so sad.

"Come here."Lightning got up from her chair and come in front of Noctis and grabbed him by his wrist and pulled him up. Lightning wrapped her arms around him hugged him.

Lightning haven't ever hugged a complete stranger before, but she felt like he needed it.

That came out of the blue. Noctis wasn't sure what to do. This was a first time he had gotten hugged by some girl who wasn't his relative. He felt so awkward, she felt so tiny and fragile next to him so he didn't know how to hug her properly, even hugging somebody was so hard thing to do.

Noctis responded to the hug, trying to be careful and trying to keep his breathing at the same pace as before, but her smell and the fact that how close she was made him to breath little too fast to be normal.

She smelled like raspberry, honey and orange blossoms, she was perfect she smelled and looked astonishing and she had an unutterable personality. Noctis wouldn't have even dreamed about getting so close to a woman like her. Noctis could believe how close he had gotten to her, he would just have wanted to kiss her and look how she'd enjoy. It was a shame that he couldn't touch her more, but this had already saved his day or a week or many many weeks. Noctis felt himself getting a strange warm feeling inside, he blushed of the embarrassment and tried to clear his mind.

"Don't squeeze so tightly." Lightning said.

Noctis loosened his grip. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you? Are you okay?" Noctis asked concerned.

"Dammit _I'm hopeless. I always do something wrong. It's no wonder that nobody doesn't want to spend time with me." _Noctis cursed to himself he'd just wanted to punch himself.

"Don't worry, I'm completely fine." Lightning said

"I-I'm sorry." Noctis stuttered. "I umm...Can I-?"

Noctis shook his head a little. "I uhm, sorry I-"

_"Dammit say something idiot." _Noctis punched himself mentally.

"Is everything okay?" Lightning asked.

"No- I mean yes, sorry I'm just tired." Noctis said.

"H-Have you slept well?" Noctis asked "Does your wound hurt? Tell if you can't so I can get you some painkillers or something."

"Don't worry, I'm okay." Lightning said.

"I'm happy to hear that." Noctis smiled stupidly showed his teeth, she could be lying but he was happy that she didn't hate him because what he did. He could be wrong too, but he decided to ignore it.

"Wow, how are you teeth so white?" Lightning asked. "Why don't you smile more?"

"I-I didn't know." Noctis blushed.

"Didn't know?"

"I didn't." Noctis said.

"Why don't you smile more then? People can't see how nice smile you have." Lightning smiled.

Noctis stared at her, he couldn't believe how could she behave in such a friendly way, just like nothing bad had never ever happened.

"Thanks, I've never heard anyone saying that." Noctis said. "Why aren't you angry to me? I don't understand."

Lightning looked at Noctis with a little questioning expression on her face. "Should I be then?" Lightning asked little confused.

"No, no I didn't mean that." Noctis said. "I just want to know why are you so kind even though I've harmed you so much."

"I just don't feel like sulking right now." Lightning sighed. "It doesn't mean that I would be completely okay with it but if you are really wanting to get better and you're providing me help then I can forgive you. I think or hope that people can change, some can some can't."

"Really?" Noctis asked confused.

"I guess so."

Noctis hugged Lightning. "I'm so sorry, I know that I can never be sorry enough but I feel so myself so stupid because what I did to you. I never should have done it, I don't want to hurt women but I did it anyways, I'll blame myself the rest of my life. I hope that you will forgive me, but I'm okay if you don't." Noctis said.

"Eh, don't worry about it, you don't have to be so over dramatic." Lightning patted Noctis' back. "Can you let go of me?"

Noctis pulled himself back, even if he wouldn't have wanted to. "I'm sorry." Noctis blushed.

"Are you always like that?" Lightning said. "No offend."

Noctis lifted his head a little to look at Lightning again, he felt how hot his face was. "I-I don't know." Noctis said. "I just-, I guess that...sorry I don't know." Noctis said and shook his head slightly because his awkward answer.

"That's interesting." Lightning said.

"Is there something what you like to do? I mean something like painting, playing instruments or something? I can get everything you want for you, just let me know. I'd be so happy to give you something that you like." Noctis said.

"...I'm okay, thanks." Lightning sighed.

"Is something wrong?" Noctis tried to collect the pieces of his manliness and try to look after her like a man should.

"Nothing, thanks."

"Don't lie to me please. I want to make you feel as comfortable as possible, okay?" Noctis said.

"I guess that I could have use for painkillers, it starts to hurt if I move too much." Lightning said. "Sorry that I didn't say that before, I don't want to complain."

"Please tell me if you really need something, even the littlest thing. I'll get you some painkillers." Noctis said.

"Thanks." Lightning said. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Noctis said. "Do you mind if I uh-"

"C-Can I touch you? I mean that can I just touch your waist a little so I know how bad your wound is?" Noctis looked at Lightning.

Lightning stared at Noctis with questioning expression on her face and Noctis turned his head when he realized what he had just said, he felt so embarrassed.

Noctis rubbed his neck. "I uh- Sorry I shouldn't have asked that. I'm stupid sorry." Noctis tried to take his words back "I'm concerned."

"No it's okay." Lightning said.

Noctis looked at her confused. "Oh..." Noctis said. "Thanks, I guess." Noctis tried not to smile.

Noctis placed his hand on her waist carefully his hand trembling a little.

Lightning grabbed him by his wrist and moved it to the other side of her. "Wrong side." Lightning said.

Noctis blushed. "Oh...I'm sorry." Noctis said and slid his hand along her waist.

"_She's so slender, I can't believe how cowardish I was when I summoned my swords, it was unfair. If I hadn't used my skills, I would be dead. She is really good fighter and she haves a lot of power, even though she's so small." _Noctis thought.

Noctis didn't really feel good even though she had let him to touch her, he felt bad because now he knew how much he had hurt her, he didn't know that he had hurt her that much.

"...I didn't know that it was that bad..." Noctis whispered. "Does it hurt a lot?" Noctis asked.

"Don't worry, it's not like I'm gonna die because of it." Lightning said.

"Are you sure?" Noctis asked.

Lightning moved his hand away. "Yes..." She said.

"How about umm...Do you need clothes or make up?" Noctis asked. "I don't mean that you would need make up, you're so pretty anyways." Noctis blurted.

Noctis put his hand over his mouth and his face went as red as it can go. "I-I..." Noctis stuttered.

"Relax okay?" Lightning said. "Thanks, I don't use make up but I'd appreciate it a lot if I'd get some clothes...I don't really have any other than these."

"I'm sorry, I can't behave how I should. I'm the prince, I shouldn't behave like this. I'm so sorry, I must try to be more formal." Noctis took a deep breath. "I'll get you some new clothes, what designer do you like the most? I can get you to shopping or I can hire a designer to do something unique for you."

"Huh?" Lightning asked confused.

"Is everything okay? I can go to buy some clothes for you too, just tell me what you like." Noctis said.

"What? Designer clothing?" Lightning asked.

"Yes, designer labeled clothing. Which designers do you like?" Noctis asked.

"...I'm not sure what you mean." Lightning said. "I use normal clothes."

Noctis was puzzled. "Eh, what do you mean?" Noctis asked.

"I don't understand what do you mean." Lightning said and sat down on the sofa.

Noctis sat next to her and took his jacket off. "Wait." Noctis said and showed the tag with big M kind of letter on it to Lightning.

"Look, do you know this designer?" Noctis asked.

"No I don't." Lightning said.

"Really?" Noctis looked at Lightning surprised.

"Really."

"Don't you have any?" Noctis asked.

"No, I've never heard of designer clothes." Lightning said.

Noctis was silent for a moment. "How strange." Noctis said. "Do everybody in Cocoon use clothes like you have?" Noctis asked.

"Yes." Lightning said. "You're silly.

"Wow..." Noctis said. "Only poor people here use non-designer clothes." Noctis said.

"Oh." Lightning said.

Noctis thought about it for a moment before he realized what he had just said.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend." Noctis said. "Please forgive me, I'm used to this way of living. I'll get you some designer clothes for you, every label I can find so you have lot of options to choose from."

"Don't worry, I'm not really poor. I have really good wage in Cocoon, but in general Cocoon is so poor place that we don't have this kind of stuff. Everything here is so fancy." Lightning said.

"I'll give you money so you can buy something nice from here." Noctis smile.

Lightning stared at him. "I don't want your money." Lightning said strictly.

"Huh?" Noctis looked at Lightning and Lightning looked at him, Noctis blushed and turned his head away.

Lightning turned his head so that he had to look at her. "Can you look at me when you talk to me?" Lightning asked. "Prince."

Noctis looked at her his cheeks red, he felt really uncomfortable because their faces were so close to each other and she would now see how nervous he was.

"I-I'm sorry miss." Noctis said, he couldn't really concentrate on anything else but looking at her and admiring how beautiful she was.

"Miss?" Lightning chuckled.

"Y-Yes Miss Farron. I apologize." Noctis said shyly.

"That's so funny." Lightning smiled. "But I'm not taking any money, okay? End of story."

"Okay." Noctis said.

"Why are you suddenly being so humble? Shouldn't I because you are a royal and I'm not? I should obey you right?" Lightning asked.

"Oh, no no." Noctis said quickly. "Please don't. I'm just trying to be polite, I'm really sorry if I offended you. I don't want you to look at my rank Lightning, okay?"

"Alright your highness." Lightning said.

"Please don't" Noctis said.

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry." Noctis said and stretched out his jacket to Lightning. "Do you want to try it on?" Noctis asked.

"Um, okay." Lightning said and put his jacket on, which smelled as good as Noctis did.

"I guess that it's little too big." Noctis smiled.

"Yeah." Lightning said and eyed the jacket. "This is really nice jacket, it looks really good on you but you should buy something more colorful too." Lightning said and and almost managed to get the jacket off when Noctis adjusted the collar of the jacket a little.

"No no, I don't need it. Please keep it." Noctis said.

"Huh?" Lightning looked at Noctis like he would be lunatic.

"You need something to cover your shoulders with if you get cold. Just because you don't have any other long sleeved clothes. Don't worry, it looks perfect on you. Isn't it good that women can wear men's clothing without looking stupid?" Noctis said.

"I don't-"

"Please." Noctis said. "It's brand new, from the prince." Noctis smiled, he didn't feel as nervous anymore as before.

"However." Lightning sighed.

Awkward silence.

"So umm do you think that I'm treating you nicely enough?" Noctis asked. "I mean uh, I'm a prince so I should offer you all the things what I can offer to you...I'll do whatever you want me to do." Noctis said.

"Wow you're so weird." Lightning said.

"Sorry." Noctis said.

"That's so funny, I wonder if all the princes are like you. Do you have a white horse too?" Lightning smiled.

"I can get one." Noctis said.

"Yeah you're pretty weird." Lightning said and got up. "Sorry, I should go to brush my hair and stuff, I promised to go to see Prompto after he comes from work.

Noctis got quickly back up too. "Wait." Noctis said and looked at her admiring how beautiful she was. She had really beautiful strawberry colored long hair, which matched perfectly with her flawless light skin. Her eyes were light aqua-colored, she looked so innocent. She had luscious lips, just by looking at her make Noctis feel like he couldn't just hold back anymore, he wanted to kiss her so badly.

"What is it?" Lightning asked.

Noctis blushed. "I just- I-I" Noctis stuttered. "Y-You're really pretty." Noctis said.

"Um, thanks." Lightning said.

"Can- Can you give me a hug?" Noctis stuttered and came a little closer.

Lightning took a step back. "Uhm, why?" Lightning asked.

"I...I just haven't hugged anyone for so long time...it makes me feel little more important in a way." Noctis blushed. "I know that it sounds stupid, but I haven't hugged anyone since my mom died, I'm embarrassed to say it but it's true."

"Really?" Lightning looked at Noctis surprised. "Why? You're a prince, I bet that every girl is here after you. Liar."

The last word made Noctis feel so bad. "I apologize." Noctis sighed. "Well have fun, say to Prompto or someone here if you need something, okay?"

"Did I hurt your feeling, were you telling the truth?" Lightning asked.

Noctis was silent for a moment. "Oh don't worry about it." Noctis said.

Lightning hugged him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Lightning leaned her head against his chest.

"Thanks." Noctis hugged Lightning. "I'm okay, sorry I don't really have time for anything else but for work." Noctis said.

"You need some vacation." Lightning said and patted his back.

"Yeah." Noctis said. "Am I squeezing too hard? Do you feel comfortable?" Noctis asked.

"No you're not." Lightning said. "You're like a huge teddy bear, I feel so small." Lightning chuckled.

"Oh..." Noctis said. "I'm little tall, sorry." Noctis said.

"You're so funny." Lightning laughed.

Noctis wasn't sure what to say.

"Is everything else okay?" Noctis asked and rubbed her back. "Do you have back pains or something like that? I can get masseur if you want."

"...No I'm okay." Lightning said.

"Alright, is there anything else that I can provide for you? Anything you want." Noctis said and stroke her cheek and slid his hand along her neck. Noctis just kept staring at her lips, he'd just wanted to lean forward and kiss her.

Lightning grabbed him by his wrist and moved his hand away.

"Everything is fine. Thanks." Lightning said. "Maybe you should go now."

"Lightning, I-I …" Noctis stuttered.

"Yes?" Lightning looked at him.

He blushed. "Uh I just I-...It's nothing" Noctis turned his head away.

"I guess that I have to go back to work." Noctis said. "You can pay a visit to me if you want, even if I'm working. I can take a coffee break or something, I usually don't do that because I don't like sitting alone doing nothing, but it would be nice to have a coffee break with someone." Noctis said.

"I'll keep that in mind." Lightning said.

"Thanks for listening me, I'm happy that you are okay with talking to me. I was afraid that you wouldn't forgive me and I wouldn't have change to get to know you better just because I was an idiot" Noctis said.

"Thank you for not killing me." Lightning smiled.

"Well, see you later." Noctis said and headed back to his office.

"Bye."

Noctis was sure that he wouldn't be able to work today.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Lightning stood on the balcony. She was watching the city which was surrounding the castle.

The city was so dark, only the slight amount of light radiating from the windows of the buildings were separating them from each other.

"_What's wrong with this place really? Do Noctis really want to his kingdom to look like this? The city looks pretty dead." _Lightning wondered.

"_Is he really okay?" _Lightning thought.

_"He always says that he's okay, but it is hard to believe, because he looks so sick all the time, he was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes, he didn't look like he would be healthy."_

"Maybe I should pay him a visit, just to see how he is doing. He said he wouldn't mind if I'd visit him while he was working." Lightning said to herself.

Lightning started to head to Noctis' office walking down the hallway. Prompto had introduced the castle to her one day, after he came from work. Prompto was really friendly but otherwise his personality was really odd. Well Lightning still liked him, he had so high self-esteem and he was sometimes really childish, he always managed to make her smile.

Lightning came to the door of Noctis' office. She knocked the door.

"Who is it?" Lightning heard Noctis asking.

"It's me, Lightning." Lightning said.

"Oh...Please come in." Noctis said.

Lightning opened the door. She gave a glimpse of the room. It was very messy, papers all over the floor and piles of the papers on the desk and on the shelves of the cabinets.

Lightning was shocked when she saw a huge amount of liquor bottles on the floor and in the basket next to his table. Lightning didn't understand why he had a liquor cabinet in his office. That was just crazy.

Noctis sat in front of his desk resting his head against his hand. He ran his fingers through his messy hair.

"I'm glad that you came here to see me. Sorry I didn't have time to clean up." Noctis slurred.

Lightning wasn't glad to hear how he spoke even though his voice was silky and calm.

"Are you okay? Lightning asked.

"Yes, you should stop being so worried about me." Noctis straightened his position.

"I can't help it. Why are here so many liquor bottles?" Lightning asked.

Silence.

"I-I'm not sure." Noctis stuttered.

Lightning came in front of him and lowered herself to his level and brushed his locks off his face. She stroke his cheek and held his head in place. His breath smelled like alcohol.

"Noctis, are you an alcoholic?" Lightning asked looking into his eyes concerned.

Noctis flinched, he was nervous when she was so close to him. Then he remembered what she asked.

"_Dammit!" _Noctis cursed in his mind.

"No, that's ridiculous." Noctis said. He didn't want to her to see that he had problems with alcohol, but he felt so stupid because it was obvious that he had problems. Any normal person wouldn't drink that much. And no person wouldn't drink when they were working.

"Don't deny it Noctis. I can see that. You are pale and you have dark circles under your eyes, you look sick **all the time. **Now I know why you look like that. You drink too much, your body is begging for mercy. Your hair is in very bad condition and so is your skin." Lightning said to him seriously. "You have to moisturizer and a good hair conditioner, I will buy those for you and it's not gay to take care of yourself. You gotta stop drinking. This isn't healthy anymore."

Noctis looked at Lightning, he didn't know what to say, she was right. He couldn't deny it, there was too much proof.

"Lightning, I-" Noctis muttered.

"Say it."

"I am unhappy and stressed. I don't have time to do anything fun, I just work from day to the night, it's killing me. Alcohol makes me feel better, it keeps me going." Noctis admitted staring the floor. Noctis blushed, he felt so embarrassed. "I'm sorry...It's pretty much the only thing which I enjoy of nowadays, it's the only thing I have. I don't have time for relationships or anything so I drink, it isn't anything like spending time with somebody you like, but it's something at least...I don't smoke anything, don't worry."

"_How humiliating"_ Noctis thought.

Lightning couldn't believe that the prince was alcoholic; she knew he was having a hard time looking after the kingdom, but she had never expected that he was an alcoholic, she only thought that he had been in a bar or something at the first day they met.

Lightning drew Noctis into a tight hug, and drew him closer to let his head rest on her shoulder. Lightning ran her fingers through his hair. "Don't worry, everything is going to be fine. I will get you some help." Lightning leaned her head against his chest

"_Gosh he smells good."_ Lightning thought. He smelled like musk and cedar, mixed with the smell of alcohol which smelled in his breath but didn't ruin his scent, he still smelled astonishing.

Noctis hugged her back, now more gently than the first time. He didn't want to hurt her. "Thanks." Noctis whispered into Lightning's ear. "I'm sorry that you had to see this, I'm little drunk now so if I do something stupid then please leave."

"It's okay." Lightning said and stepped slightly back trying to give a sign to Noctis to loose his grip. "Let me go already." Lightning chuckled.

Noctis pulled himself out of the hug, he was a little disappointed. He would have wanted to hug her a little longer.

"You know I don't like people using my name with the word 'your highness'." Noctis smiled a little.

"Okay your highness. Do you think you can continue working now?" Lightning asked.

"Hey I actually meant that!" Noctis said with a little higher voice tone. "Sorry I didn't mean to raise my voice to you." Noctis rubbed the back of his head nervoysly.

"I can try, but I might write on the table." Noctis smiled a little. "But can you stay here a little longer?" Noctis blushed.

"Why?" Lightning asked.

"I-I just like to have you around. I'm always alone." Noctis' voice was shaking. "You can leave too, it's okay. I'm so tired anyways that I might fall asleep, I didn't sleep well last night."

Lightning looked Noctis into his eyes. He really wanted someone to keep company with him. He must have been lonely, working continually alone…

Lightning couldn't say anything but yes, she understood how he felt.

"I will stay here with you if you want to. I have time." Lightning answered.

Noctis smiled. "Thank you so much." Noctis said and sat back on his chair. "Would you like to drink something? I mean coffee or tea? Or something else? We have all kind of drinks and the chefs can make you a milkshake or whatever you want, do you like ice cream?" Noctis asked.

"No thank you. I can clean up here a little, I guess that it's nicer to work here when it isn't so messy." Lightning said.

"Please don't strain yourself, I can clean up later." Noctis said while he was trying to organize his papers. "I'm used to this, I never have time to finish all the papers in time, I guess that the oldest ones are brought here 2 years ago and more are brought in continually." Noctis said.

"No, you have to work, I can clean up." Lightning said and started to pick the papers up and piling them up.

"...Okay, but don't do that just because you're trying to be nice, you're too kind already." Noctis looked at her.

"It's my pleasure." Lightning said. "You should get rid of that liquor cabinet, it doesn't belong here."

"I know, but I can't stop drinking right away. I'll get horrible abstinence symptoms." Noctis said. He didn't like to speak about this subject, but he know that she was right. "I've tried once, but it was like going through hell, it's not easy."

"You don't have to stop drinking all of the sudden. You must reduce the amount you drink at a time, you can't drink a whole bottle at once." Lightning said while she was tidying the room.

"Can you help me?" Noctis asked.

"What?"

"Can you help me to stop drinking?" Noctis almost whispered.

"Well, I can try. I'm not a professional so I'm not completely sure what should I do." Lightning answered. "How are you getting doing?" Lightning asked and walked behind his chair and peeked over his shoulder.

Noctis' hand was shaking, he was nervous. She was so close to him that he could feel her breath tickling his neck. It made him shiver a little.

"Are you cold or something?" She asked,

"N-No, I'm not. My back just hurts." Noctis tried to come up with an excuse, but that sounded ridiculous. "I'm sitting on a chair all day, all night. It's no wonder why I'm behaving like this."

"Try to sit straight." Lightning said and laid her hands on his shoulders and massaged his shoulders. "Does this help?" Lightning asked.

Noctis took a deep breath. It felt so good when her careful hands massaging his shoulders and upper back. It made his muscles relax. He felt his shoulders to drop down a little when the tension released from his back and shoulders. He moaned silently, he didn't know that it would feel so good.

Lightning had a hard time massaging him, because his broad shoulders and muscular back. His back felt very hard, she could feel it through his t-shirt, his fat percent must have been really low since his muscles stood out so well, he was in really good shape even if he said that he didn't have time for anything but for work.

Lightning blushed when she realized what he was thinking.

Lightning let go of his shoulders.

Noctis took a deep breath and stretched his arms a little.

"_Gosh that felt good."_ Noctis thought and sighed.

"Did that feel good?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, I enjoyed really much. Thanks." Noctis smiled.

"When was the last time you got a massage? The muscles of your back felt like they were stuck of something." Lightning said.

"I've never had a massage." Noctis answered.

"Wow. You should go to get a massage now and then, it makes you feel so much better." Lightning said to him.

"Yes I noticed that." Noctis smiled.

Lightning tapped his cheek lightly "You should smile more, it makes you look better too." Lightning smiled.

"You have a pretty smile too." Noctis blushed.

"Thanks." Lightning said stroked his cheek. "Please don't drink so much, it's not good for you. Tell me if you are having a hard time working so I'll try to help you. You can take a day of sometimes so I can go somewhere if you want and if you think that that would help you." Lightning said.

"Really?" Noctis asked surprised.

"I understand if you don't have time though, I just wanted to let you know." Lightning said.

Noctis turned around in his hair and he got up, he tripped but he managed to not to fall over.

Lightning grabbed him by his wrist. "Be careful to not to fall over." Lightning said.

"O-Of course I have time." Noctis slurred. "Sorry I ehm...I'm so happy that you want to spend time with me, I haven't been to the city for a long time. I'd be so happy if you'd come with me." Noctis smiled.

"Good, maybe you should try to work now. Take a break between every hour or so, you can try to relax or drink something but not alcohol, do you understand?" Lightning asked.

"Yes I do." Noctis said. "I feel so good that you're the one to tell me to what to do." Noctis smiled.

"You're so strange." Lightning said. "I'll come later to see how you're doing, if you've drank then things will turn ugly." Lightning said.

"I won't, I promise." Noctis said.

Lightning stroke his cheek. "Attaboy." Lightning chuckled and left the room.

Noctis held his hand on his cheek, he felt so good, she had told him that she could spend time with him, that was what he had always wanted.

Noctis smiled and sat back on his chair and he started to work on his papers again.


	5. Broken bones and shattered dreams

**A/N: Finally the chapter 5 is out! Enjoy! :) This was really fun to write, this is one of my favorite chapters. Thanks for reviewers, followers and for the people who've faved my story. Feedback is very welcome! :) Read&Enjoy&Review.**

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Noctis woke up the next morning, he felt horrible. He felt nauseated and he had a headache. His body was slightly trembling all the time.

He felt really weak; it took a lot of his energy just to get up from the bed. When he got up he put on a dark grey jeans and a black t-shirt. He knew Lightning didn't like how he dressed, but he didn't have any other colored clothes than dark grey or black.

He walked down the hallway tiredly. He noticed that maids were staring at him.

"What the fuck are you staring at?!" Noctis shouted at the maids.

The maids ran away in fear. They knew what horrible things might happen if the prince gets angry.

Noctis went to Lightning's rooms door and he knocked the door. Lightning came to open it. She looked at Noctis from head to toe.

"Good morning." Noctis said and blushed a little. "You're cute." Noctis ran his fingers through his spiky hair.

"Um, what?" Lightning tilted her head.

"I-I think that it's cute when your hair is messy." Noctis stuttered.

"Oh…thank you." Lightning said.

Noctis put his hands behind his back and asked. "Can you come to eat breakfast with me? I always eat alone; it would be nice if you would come to keep company with me."

"Yes sure, why not." Lightning smiled and come out of her room and closed the door. "Okay let's go, I'm okay like this."

"Don't worry, you look good." Noctis said.

"Thanks." Lightning said.

"Hey what have happened to you? Did you got hit by a bus or something?" Lightning looked at Noctis and smiled.

"What do you mean?" Noctis asked little confused.

"Your hair is very messy, which is cute but it has changed color, it's now silverish black. It looks pretty good on you. Have you dyed your hair?" Lightning asked.

"No I haven't." Noctis answered.

"Well, your eyes are narrowed and little reddish. To be honest I think that you look a little bit scary. Are you okay?" Lightning asked.

"_Oh shit."_ Noctis cursed in his mind.

"Um, I guess I forgot something. I will be back right away. Wait here okay?" Noctis said quickly and ran back into his room.

"_Wow, he's been behaving very strangely lately, what have happened to him this time?" _Lightning sighed.

Lightning was very caring person, but she could behave very coldly against people too. She was quite determined. But she was good at reading body language; she knew how the person felt, just by looking at him. Some said that she was empathic too. She could see that Noctis wasn't completely honest with her.

Noctis opened the doors to his balcony and jump to the stairs which were almost next to his balcony. He ran quickly down and headed to the training course. He always went there when he had to calm down. That was one of those places where people didn't go too often. It was next to his castle and the forest so it kind of belonged to him…Like everything else in his kingdom.

It was a good place to calm down because there were not noises and no people around. If he would lose control then there would be a smaller change that he would hurt anyone.

Noctis sat down on the grass and held his head between his hands; he grabbed a fistful of his hair and tried to calm down. He was breathing rapidly. He could how his blood was starting to boil. His muscles around his body started to contract, the blood vessels in his arms expanded. He was trembling.

Noctis didn't understand what made him to lose the control in all of a sudden, he was just normally chatting with Lightning when she told him what was happening, he didn't even notice it himself. He wasn't angry to anyone, he was just little annoyed when the maids stared at him, but he couldn't lose control such a small things. He was just tired and off-color, nothing else.

He knew that too much pain would make him lose control too, but it wasn't likely since he should be in huge agony that that would happen. He didn't feel any pain right now and he would snap just moments before he would die. It was a defensive reaction, that would make him last a little longer.

"What's happening to me?" Noctis sighed.

Noctis tried to take a deep breath and think things that have made him happy. It helped him sometimes.

He thought of Lightning, how she wanted to help him and how her touched him, it made him feel special that some other person touched him like that. It meant a lot to him since it had been a long time since anyone really wanted to touch him without forced or coldly with no emotions. Lightning's touch was warm and caring, she actually wanted to do that herself. She wasn't afraid to be around him, she treated him like any other person.

Noctis smiled.

He was concentrating so hardly that he didn't notice a huge benemoth approaching quietly from the woods.

Then Noctis felt how the ground shook, he peeked over his shoulder and saw the benemoth approaching. Noctis tried to get up but the benemoth was too close and he didn't have time to stand up or dodge.

The benemoth whisked him and he flew against a tree. Then he snapped.

Lightning have had enough for waiting him to come back and she was heading back to her to change some clothes but then she saw Prompto and two other guys running down the stairways.

"Prompto, where are you going? Are you late again?" Lightning shouted to him.

Prompto and the two other guys stopped in their tracks.

"Lightning, Noctis has gone mad, don't follow us or you'll get hurt." Prompto said quickly and started to descend the stairs.

"_Noctis has gone mad? What did Prompto mean? Noctis seemed quite strange this morning, but how could he just suddenly go mad and why shouldn't she go to see him? _Lightning was thought.

Lightning decided to follow Prompto and the other guys anyway; she wanted to know what was happening.

Lightning ran after them to the outside to the training field. Prompto and the other guys were standing on the edge of the training field looking at Noctis from a long distance but they were showing no signs to go any closer.

In the training area Noctis was surrounded by a pitch black aura, his eyes were red and his hair wasn't bluish black anymore, it was now more silverish black colored than at the morning before he left. His movements were mind-bogglingly fast; Lightning could see how the black aura was following him as he moved it floated in the air before it faded away. After Noctis had moved.. He had a scary expression on his face; it felt like his glare could kill.

Noctis was fighting against a huge benemoth, it was at least two times taller than him. He looked really small next to it, even though Noctis was quite tall guy.

Noctis handled his sword skillfully, as if he would have trained the usage of the sword every day since he was a kid. It was so unnatural how quick and easy his movement was. Lightning was impressed, but at the same time she was really afraid and concerned.

Lightning ran to Prompto. "What the fuck, why aren't you guys doing anything?!" Lightning shouted.

Prompto grabbed Lightning by her waist and pulled her as close to him as he could. Not letting her to move.

"Prompto, let me go!" Lightning shouted to Prompto. "He can't kill that by himself!"

"I said you to not to follow us, you're not going anywhere, or you get yourself killed." Prompto stared into her eyes seriously.

"What?! There are four of us; I have killed benemoths before too! We must help him!" Lightning shouted her voice full of anger and despair.

Prompto placed his index finger under her chin and lifted her head up a little. "It's not about the benemoth, if you go any closer Noctis will kill you with no hesitation." Prompto said to Lightning calmly.

Lightning's eyes widened.

"It's not time to play games Prompto, he's going to die if he fights on his own!" Lightning shouted to him with a little sorrow in her voice.

Prompto felt sorry for her; she didn't know what was going on.

Prompto stared into Lightning's eyes seriously. "Lightning, he isn't able to control his own body when he is in that state, he's extremely erratic. He will destroy everything that comes on his way, it doesn't matter who or what is it. If we go any closer he will notices us and then he'll kill us right away and he wouldn't even think twice. Prompto said.

Lightning was flabbergasted; she couldn't believe what he just had said, Noctis wouldn't behave like that. He is very sweet and nice person. Noctis was so innocent he was shy and cute because he was so inexperienced in so many things. Lightning wouldn't have ever thought that there would be this kind of side in him too. The first time they met she thought that his self-confidence came from the alcohol and some of it probably did, but he wasn't drunk now…she guessed.

Lightning leaned her head against Prompto's chest and sobbed. "I don't want him to get hurt." Lightning whispered. "He has no changes Prompto."

Prompto laid his hand on her head and stroked her hair. "Don't worry; he's going to be okay. He's stronger and faster in that state; he's not that easy to beat. He doesn't feel pain, which would slow him down. He hasn't lost the battle yet."

Noctis couldn't reach high enough to slash the benemoth's head so he could make more severe wounds so he tried to maim it's legs so it would slow down. Noctis was little weakened because he was a little sick at the morning so he didn't have so much stamina as he usually had. He was nauseated.

Noctis had to gasp for air when he felt like throwing up, he tried to not to throw up in the middle of the battle, he got off guard and the benemoth scratched his chest with it's huge claws which must have been at least 15 inches long. It made a horrible damage; the wound went from his left shoulder to the right side of his hip. Noctis was lucky that he didn't got himself eviscerated.

The wound was horribly deep; Lightning was amazed how he was still alive but he seemed not to notice that he got wounded, he just rose up again and kept fighting. His blood splattered all over the place, the ground was starting to get red of his blood. He didn't show any signs that he would be exhausted or in pain because his horrible injury. He just kept going.

Lightning hit her fist against Prompto's chest. "Please, we must do something. Didn't you see that he got almost cut in half? It's a miracle that he hasn't died yet! We can't let him by himself so that he would get killed, he's the prince Prompto. What happens to the kingdom if he dies?" Lightning cried against his chest.

"I'm sorry. He's on his own now." Prompto said to her calmly. "He'll survive, don't worry."

"Prompto please, I don't want him to die, he's too young to die." Lightning sobbed.

"I know that how much you care of him but don't worry, he can handle this. He has trained a lot so he knows what he's doing." Prompto tried to comfort her.

The benemoth managed to slash Noctis again and now he flew several feet into the air and he dropped down. He hit the ground very hard.

Then they heard a load crack sound.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis laid on the ground in the same position, Lightning couldn't see even a slight movement. Lightning placed her hands over her mouth concerned and terrified.

"_Oh no."_ Lightning said in her mind which was mixed with fear and concern.

"Ignis, Gladiolus, let's take it down!" Prompto shouted and he and the two other guys assailed the benemoth.

Lightning was shocked; she didn't know what to do.

"_Is he dead?"_ Lightning stood still for a moment in shock but then she ran next to Noctis.

Lightning sat on the ground next to Noctis and looked him into his eyes. His eyes were dark red, the same color as blood; his eyes were constantly changing color from dark red to dark orangish red like fire does. His glare was intimidating and Lightning felt really afraid to be so close to him.

Noctis didn't move, not at all. The only thing she saw that his eyes were wandering from place to place confused.

Then Noctis stared into Lightnings eyes. His eyes full of bloodlust, and fear but Lightning couldn't see that he was in pain, just like Prompto said.

Noctis' mouth was slightly ajar and he was bleeding severely; Lightning took her jacket off and tried to press it against his wound to stop the bleeding. It didn't really help; the wound was too long and deep. Noctis' kept staring at her. Lightning was afraid to look at him; his glare was like a warning to not to get so close or you would get hurt. Lightning couldn't believe how severally he was wounded she'd never seen wounds as big as his. A normal person would have died already.

Noctis didn't move. Even though he was in that state, he didn't move. He stayed in the same position.

"_Wait… what?" _Lightning thought. She heard a huge crack sound when he hit the ground and…

"_I-Is he paralyzed?"_ Lightning felt how her heart jumped in her chest.

"Noctis say something!" Lightning cried. "Please say something." Lightning cried.

Noctis didn't answer.

"_He's paralyzed…Why did this happen to him, he's such a nice boy. He didn't deserve this."_ Lightning though trying to not to cry.

Then the red color in his eyes started to fade away and the blue color started to replace the red color slowly. The blue color was very light at first but the color started to darken. When his eyes were completely back to normal his pupils dilated. His eyes started to move rapidly from place to place. Now Lightning saw horror and agony in his eyes. He was in horrible pain. He was suffering and he couldn't move.

Lightning didn't understand. If he was paralyzed then how could he feel something? Paralyzed people don't feel anything. Lightning tried to stop thinking about it, the first priority was to get him out of there alive. Prompto knows what's happening to him, he know what to do.

Lightning tried not to cry, but she failed. Crystalclear teardrops started running down her cheeks and they dropped on Noctis' chest. Lightning looked at Noctis sadly, she didn't know what to do.

Noctis started to turn pale.

Lightning realized that he couldn't breathe on his own, how stupid had she been. He had been there without oxygen for a long time, and she didn't even notice it. She would never forgive herself if he would have gotten a brain damage or something because the lack of oxygen.

Noctis' irises moved upward, he was about to faint.

"Stay awake Noctis or you'll die." Lightning said her eyes watering.

Lightning tried to give him artificial respiration. She opened his mouth a little more and she took a deep breath and placed her lips on his. Lightning tried to give some oxygen so that he wouldn't faint and die right there.

Noctis' pupils dilated and he stared at Lightning. Lightning could see his agony but he seemed to relax a little when Lightning helped him. His chest started to rise up and down slowly.

Lightning looked at Noctis. He was looking at her.

"_He must feel really relieved, even though his agony is probably unbareable."_ Lightning thought.

Then Noctis went into shock, the pain faded away in all of a sudden. Noctis was relieved, he was glad that it was over…but he knew that it was bad. He couldn't feel how badly he was hurt. It was like you have gotten hit by a car and you're so severally hurt that you can't feel it. You might just start walking and think that you're okay but the reality is that you're so badly hurt that you'll die right away when you step out of the car.

Noctis was glad because he wasn't alone, he was glad that Lightning was here trying to help him. Noctis felt sorry to for her because her because he caused so much trouble to her. Noctis knew that paralyzed people can't feel anything and can't move but he felt the pain but he couldn't move. He was so unlucky, he had to go through all of this pain even though he got paralyzed, which was horrible enough already.

But he felt little better every time when Lightning touched his lips. He knew that she just wanted to help but she was so pretty that he would want to kiss her. He had never kissed anyone so her being so close was a new experience to him already.

Noctis was happy that if he would die now, he would die next to Lightning. She had been really nice to him, he was happy that she had spent time with him. She was the first girl Noctis had really been this close. Their relationship wasn't anything more than a friendship, but he appreciated it a lot since he was too shy to go to talk girls and such. He didn't really even have time for that and prince can't just walk into a bar to meet people. He couldn't meet anyone new. Noctis just would have wanted to hug Lightning for spending time with him and for everything she had done for him, but he couldn't. He felt himself so helpless; he couldn't thank her or anything.

Lightning tried to press his chest up and down get the oxygen into his circulation. She had never done this before, so she wasn't sure if it helped or not. He seemed to get a little better, when she looked into his eyes.

Lightning's mom always told her that eyes are the mirror of your soul, you could read how the person felt by looking him into his eyes. When Lightning was a child she started to watch how people behaved in certain situations and she learned to link the human behavior and feelings together. It had helped her a lot in her life so she was really glad that her mom told her that so now she knew how to read human's body language and such.

"_He's in shock, he looks too calm. He can't feel the pain anymore." _Lightning thought horrified and kept pressing his chest.

The ground shook; the benemoth collapsed and fell onto the ground breathless. Prompto and the other guys ran next to Lightning.

"Prompto, please help him!" Lightning sobbed to Prompto.

"I'm not sure if I can Lightning, his wounds are too severe, he hasn't got enough time. He'll die on the journey to the castle." Prompto said his voice full of hesitation and sadness.

She grabbed Prompto by the collar. "How dare you say that?! Your friend is dying in front of your eyes and you say that you can't help. Haven't you noticed that he's not dead yet? I'm sure that he heard that. He feels bad enough already jackass." Lightning gritted her teeth.

"Lightning, he's too injured. The only thing we can do is-" Prompto tried to say but he could finish his sentence when Lightning slapped his cheek.

"You're the only one here who knows what to do. You can't answer like that, no matter how bad his condition is, we must try atleast." Lightning said to him angrily.

"He's important to me; don't let him die, please. I don't know what I should do." Lightning cried.

"Fine, I'll go to get stretcher. Make sure that he gets enough oxygen." Prompto ran back to the castle.

Lightning tried to make sure that he got enough oxygen. She couldn't look into Noctis' eyes. She was afraid that she would see how his life would fade away from him. She'd never forgive herself if that would happen.

"He must be important to you." Lightning heard the other guy saying.

When Lightning got her mouth off Noctis' mouth she shouted to him. "Shut up and come here to press the wound, he'll bleed to death." Lightning said to him.

"_Why are his friends acting like they don't care if he dies or not? Those two guys were just sitting there not to even try to help him." _Lightning gritted her teeth of the thought.

A man with strong body build with a scar on his face sat next to Lightning and took his jacket off and pressed Noctis' wound with it.

"I'm sorry because Prompto acted like that. I guess he was afraid and wasn't sure what to do. He is very caring person so I don't think that he meant to say that there is no change him to survive." The man said. "We all are afraid and not sure what to do."

Lightning didn't answer; she hoped that he was right. She couldn't herself believe that Prompto would act like that either.

"Don't worry; he's going to be okay. I'm just more concerned that if he is ever able to walk again." He said. "He must have broken his neck since he can't move." He said and sighed.

Lightning looked at him. "Don't say that. He's going to walk again." Lightning said.

"That would be a miracle." The man said.

"Do you want to switch turns? Are you exhausted?" The man asked.

"I'm fine. Just keep pressing the wound." Lightning said and continued to help Noctis to breath.

"Okay, I'm Gladiolus by the way. That guy there is Ignis. We're Noctis' friends." Gladiolus said. "Sorry that I didn't tell before."

Lightning continued pressing Noctis' chest. "Okay, I'm Lightning." Lightning said shortly, she didn't really want to talk right now.

"Are you Noctis girlfriend or something?" Gladiolus asked.

"No, shut up." Lightning said.

"Sorry."

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis just laid there. He couldn't feel anything. He was very afraid; he could see only Ignis, Gladiolus and Lightning. He could hear them talking, he wouldn't have wanted to hear what they spoke of him, but he couldn't close his ears.

He hard them talking of how big was the change for him to survive. It wasn't nice to hear that even if he wouldn't die, he wouldn't be able to walk or do anything anymore. Anybody wouldn't want to be with him if he wasn't able to do anything.

He felt so helpless and embarrassed when Lightning was giving him artificial respiration. He would have wanted to breath on his own so she wouldn't need to do it for him. It felt uncomfortable when the air was forced to into his lungs, but Noctis was happy that Lightning was the one whose air was flowing in his body. He was glad that Lightning didn't want to switch turns with Gladiolus, he didn't want any other males so close to him.

Lightning looked pale. She couldn't get enough oxygen either, because she was giving all of it to him. Noctis felt bad, Lightning's first priority was to give him the oxygen, he thought other people before herself, she was so selfless.

Noctis felt sleepy and happy. He had heard that you'll fell warm and happy just before you die but he didn't really care. If he would die then Lightning shouldn't have to look after him all the time because he was so helpless in anything he did. Dying was so much easier way to get out of this situation.

Noctis tried to close his eyes, but he couldn't.


	6. Close contact

**A/N: Chapter 6 finally finished! I have been really busy and I will be for a month or so, so I won't be able to post new chapters as fast as before, but I'll do my best! Thanks for my lovely readers and reviewers! Read & Read & Review! Enjoy! :)**

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"Noctis, Noctis! Stay awake!" Lightning shouted to him when she noticed that his eyes didn't move anymore.

No response.

Ignis leaned forward to see Noctis. He shook his head and laid his hand on Lightning's shoulder.

"He's gone, we tried our best." Ignis said. "I'm sorry Lightning."

Lightning punched him. "You better to keep your mouth shut or I'll get you into the same condition as he's in." Lightning threatened him.

Prompto finally came back with the stretcher and he laid it on the ground.

"Gladiolus grab he by his shoulders, I'll lift him up from here, we gotta get him to the castle." Prompto said.

Gladiolus did what he said and they moved Noctis on the stretcher.

"Alright, let's go." Prompto said and they started to head back to the castle.

Lightning didn't know that what made her to cry so much, she didn't have a close relationship with Noctis or anything, he was still an acquiesce who she had just met. Lightning didn't cry or she usually didn't. Maybe she was just worried; maybe because he was a prince, he couldn't die. Maybe she just felt so bad for him or maybe it was because she was shocked by what she had seen, she had never seen so severe wounds, not even on dead people.

They hurried to the room in the castle. It was full of all kind of medical tools.

Prompto and Ignis laid Noctis on a bed and Prompto pulled a ventilator next to the bed and put the oxygen mask on Noctis' mouth. Prompto went to wash his hands and he quickly put plastic gloves on and he grabbed some tools from the table.

Prompto gave scissors to Lightning. "Cut his shirt open and get it off him." He went back to the table again.

Lightning was frozen for a moment, she wasn't sure if she could do it. She didn't know if she had the courage to see how badly he was hurt and she didn't want to hurt him even more.

She cut his shirt open and she gasped for air when she saw the wound, it was impossible that he would be still alive. Lightning tried not to look at the wound, she was afraid that she would faint, she never had had that feeling before, but now she had.

Lightning looked at Noctis, he was so pale and his lips weren't as red as they should be. His eyes were blank; she didn't see any emotions or signs of life in his eyes. His chest didn't rise up and down anymore, he wasn't alive, he couldn't be.

She put her hand behind his ear to check his pulse. She didn't feel anything.

"No, no..." Lightning whispered to herself with teary eyes. Lightning stroke his cheek. "Please don't go, not yet. You have your whole life ahead of you, and I haven't gotten to thank you about everything what you have provided for me. Please." Lightning sobbed.

Lightning would have wanted to help him so badly, but she didn't know how. She was pretty sure that she couldn't help him, not anymore, if someone could it was Prompto. Lightning hoped that he'd try his best to help Noctis.

"Someone, please turn the heater on. We must make sure he keeps warm." Prompto grabbed a bag of blood plasma so Prompto would be able to transfer some blood into Noctis' veins.

Lightning looked at Prompto little shocked; she knew that it was very bad if he had to undergo blood transfusion. "W-Where you get those Prompto?" Lightning asked.

"From a blood bank. I change them every day, if something like this happens." Prompto answered. Prompto put Noctis into blood transfusion. "We'll need huge amount of these; he's lost at least 35 % of his blood. That's bad, very bad. You can lose about 40 % of your blood but if you go over that, you'll die."

Lightning's eyes widened didn't like what she heard, she tried to not to start to cry again. Her stomach was aching a little.

"B-But he's not going to die right?" Lightning said. She didn't accept no as an answer.

"I'm sorry Lightning, I cannot guarantee anything, I'm not sure he is very badly wounded. He might go into shock and he might not be able to recover from it, his body won't be able to bear that for too long and then his heart will fail." Prompto said. "I'm sorry. Step back."

Prompto lifted up a defibrillation and placed the electrode paddles on his chest. And he pushed the button of the machine.

Noctis' body flinched and his chest rose up rapidly, but nothing else happened.

"Dammit." Prompto muttered.

Lightning didn't want to hear that. "What did you do to him? Is he okay?" Lightning sobbed.

"I gave him an electric shock; I'm trying to make his heart beat again." Prompto muttered and crossed his arms.

Lightning looked at Prompto confused. "Why aren't you doing anything?" Lightning asked shocked.

"I gotta wait 2 minutes before it's safe to touch him, otherwise you might get electrocuted too." Prompto said. "Don't touch him."

"Sorry." Lightning said her voice full of sorrow.

"Don't be, sorry I'm little stressed too." Prompto said and started to press his up and down. He wasn't trying to be careful; he put a lot of pressure on his chest every time when he pressed his chest.

"Alright, don't come too close and don't touch him." Prompto said and let go of Noctis and put the electrode paddles back on his chest.

Prompto pushed the button again.

Noctis flinched again and his body started to convulse slightly.

Prompto cursed and pressed the button again.

"Function forbidden. Wait for two minutes longer." The sound of the defibrillator said.

"What?!" Prompto shouted irritated. "Do I have to break this?" Prompto muttered by himself and he pressed the touch screen until the machine beeped and then Prompto hit the button again.

Noctis' body stayed in place and he moaned loudly.

"Oh my god, is he alive?" Lightning asked little hopefully.

"He didn't do that because he wanted to, the electric shock made him to make that sound." Prompto said. "I shouldn't have electrocuted him so much; his heart might not start to beat at all if you electrocute somebody more than two times. He started to convulse because his body can't handle too much electric shocks, they make his muscles to contract by themselves." Prompto sighed and started to press his chest up and down again.

Lightning stared at Prompto and she started to cry.

"Don't cry Lightning, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it like that." Prompto said.

Gladiolus got up from his chair and he leaded Lightning to the sofa to sit next to him, he patted her back. "Don't worry, he won't die. He's too stubborn to die." Gladiolus said. "You have no need to cry; try to calm down a little."

"I'm just so concerned." Lightning sobbed.

"Me too." Gladiolus said. "I'm his friend, I don't see him often because he's so busy but I'm still his friend, I don't want him to die either. Prompto knows what he's doing; he's one of the best medics in the kingdom."

Lightning looked at Gladiolus, he had really calm expression on his face and he spoke with really calm voice. It made Lightning feel little better, even though he was really embarrassed to cry in front of people who she didn't know.

"Really?" Lightning sniveled.

"Yeah, Prompto is the medic here, if he wouldn't be then Noctis would have hired some other medic, but he needs the best medic who he can find, because he is the most important person in the kingdom. Prompto is the best medic so he didn't have to hire anyone else." Gladiolus smiled a little. "Tell me if you need something, I'll look after you until Prompto is finished. You don't have to try to be polite or anything like that." Gladiolus said.

"I'm okay, thanks." Lightning sighed and wiped some tears off her face.

"So who are you? I haven't seen you before." Gladiolus asked.

"I-I'm from another kingdom." Lightning said.

"Wow, from which kingdom?" Gladiolus asked.

"Cocoon."

"Oh, there's civil war right?" Gladiolus asked.

"Yes." Lightning sighed.

"You'll be safe here." Gladiolus smiled. "How did you meet Noctis? He doesn't go to the city often, he's always too busy and I guess that he hasn't been to any other kingdoms before."

Lightning looked at Prompto and Prompto shook his head while he was cleaning Noctis' wounds.

"Um, I got hurt and Prompto found me and brought me here to cure my wounds. I got mugged." Lightning looked at Prompto again. Prompto smiled a little.

"It's my pleasure." Prompto said and smiled.

"I see. So why are you so concerned of Noctis? How long have you known each other? Or is he your cousin or something?" Gladiolus asked from Lightning.

"No, no, he's my friend. I just feel so bad that that happened to him. He's such a nice boy. He doesn't deserve that, he's so nice to me." Lightning said.

"What?" Gladiolus asked confused, he looked really amused.

"What?" Lightning asked confused.

"I've never heard that anyone had called him 'nice boy'." Gladiolus chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Lightning asked.

"Wow haven't you ever heard of him before you came here?" Gladiolus asked.

"No."

"He's a serial killer, a coldblooded mass murderer. He shows no mercy to anyone. He is very rude and emotionless person, he doesn't really care of other people. He likes to be alone and if someone does something wrong at the wrong time he'll kill that person right away without hesitation. He doesn't want people to come too close to him. I've never seen him smiling or anything, I've known him for a long time but I've never seen that he would have let some...random person in his castle just like that." Gladiolus said. "How did you get in? Or I mean how did Noctis let you to stay? You should be careful around him, he's very erratic."

Lightning stared at him not saying a word.

"...Is he like that for real?" Lightning asked confused.

"Uh-huh." Gladiolus answered.

"Are you sure?" Lightning asked.

"How so? Of course I am. Haven't you seen him before? Before he got himself in that condition." Gladiolus said.

"I've seen him few times. The first time I met him he was really drunk, he has problems with drinking." Lightning said.

"Wow, how do you know that he's an alcoholic?" Gladiolus asked astounded.

"I just know." Lightning answered.

"Wow, I've never seen that he could just reveal so much of himself to anyone in so short time. He is very careful that what he says or does." Gladiolus said. "I'm not sure how much he drinks, but Prompto told me that he drinks way too much. Noctis will kill him if he hears that that Prompto had told that to me."

"I'm so confused, he's so nice. He has really nice personality; I like to talk to him." Lightning said. "How does he act towards you?" Lightning asked.

"He pretty much ignores us, I guess that he talks to Prompto when he has to but I haven't talked with him for a long time. I have sometimes thought that maybe he has some disease like autism, because he seems not to have any emotions and he shows no sympathy, but you can never know."

"That's...interesting." Lightning said. "How was he when he was a kid?"

"Well, I know only minor things." Gladiolus said. "He was really good at school, especially at languages. He wasn't good at p.e, he's quite clumsy but still he seems to be in good shape now, I don't know how. He was really apathetic when he was a child too, I'm little younger than him so I guess that he spend his time with Prompto, but he didn't really like to be around with any other people."

"You're younger?" Lightning said surprised.

"Yeah..." Gladiolus smiled.

"Wow, I wouldn't have expected that." Lightning said. "How old are you?"

"21" Gladiolus said.

"You gotta be joking." Lightning said. "I'm 21 too."

"That's cool." Gladiolus smiled.

"Alright, this is all that I can do right now, now we just have to wait if he wakes up…If he does then he'll be in huge agony and he might go to shock again." Prompto said. "He might be paralyzed, but he still feels the pain and other things you can feel but he cannot move. I don't understand how that's possible."

"Lightning, you have time right?" Prompto said. "You can look after him."

Prompto came to Lightning and gave her a book. "Okay, here you can find the instructions what to do if something happens. He's in quite stable condition, so he'll probably just sleep, I'll come back when I get from work. You'll be fine." Prompto smiled.

"Wait what? I've never treated any patients; I don't know what to do." Lightning said.

"Don't worry you don't need to be a brain surgeon." Prompto chuckled. "I have to go to work so I can't be here all the time, so if you have time you could look after him." Prompto said.

"What if –"Lightning tried to say.

"You can call me. And he can't move so he's not going anywhere. I'm not sure if he can walk again and so because he broke his neck and he's paralyzed from neck down. He might be able to start to talk after a while, but he must first get used to that that his body won't respond all of his commands so it'll take some time. There still is a small change that he can heal completely. You can try to help him with that." Prompto said.

"He'd appreciate it a lot if you'd look after him, trust me." Prompto smiled. "If he goes into shock, look what the book says. Make sure that you wake him up if he faints, check his pulse now and then and if you don't feel it then use the defibrillator, it's really easy to use. Just do as I did and hit the red button." Prompto said.

"Okay, but is he okay otherwise? How dare you to leave him for me to take care of? What if I mess up and he dies?" Lightning asked concerned.

"Don't worry; he won't die just like that. His wound is just so huge that I can't really do anything right now; deep wounds take a long time to heal. You can't just stich them up." Prompto said. "I trust you."

"I'll tell a maid to buy a cellphone for you so you can call me. " Prompto said and took a pencil. "Do you mind?" Prompto asked.

"No, it's okay." Lightning said.

Prompto wrote his number on Lightning's hand. "Thanks." Prompto smiled. "You can call me if you need something else too." Prompto snickered.

"Shut up, it's not funny." Lightning said.

"Well, okay, I have to go now. I'll come back when I get from work. Bye!" Prompto left the room.

Ignis and Gladiolus left too.

"_Where I've gotten myself into..."_ Lightning sighed.

Lightning went next to Noctis bed and checked his pulse.

His pulse was really weak but it was better than nothing.

Lightning started to walk around the room to have a look where all the stuff was. Lightning opened the fridge and in the fridge were huge amounts of blood plasma and infusion liquids. There was all kind of medicines in little bottles too.

"_This is like a tiny infirmary" _Lightning thought.

The room wasn't really big, there were few sofas and tables and few beds and pretty much all the medical tools which existed. Lightning was happy that this room wasn't dark and black. The room's walls were light mint green colored. It was one of Lightning's favorite colors.

Lightning sat down on a sofa and looked at Noctis.

Noctis was strapped into ventilator so he could get oxygen, Lightning couldn't believe that this had happened to him. At the morning he was completely fine and now he…was paralyzed. This was a life changing day for him. It would be horrible if he had to be strapped on machines the rest of his life. It must be horrible that you can feel, see and hear but you can't move or speak. He wouldn't have deserved this, it's unfair.

Lightning took her coat off. It was so hot in there; the heater was set on maximum so Noctis would stay warm. Lightning tried to relax but she had too much in mind. She was so concerned of Noctis; this was going to be a long day.

Lightning rose up to go to see him again, his eyes were still shut. He could be awake but he wouldn't be able to open his eyes. Lightning decided to leave him alone in case if he was sleeping.

Lightning went to the fridge and watched that what kind of medicines there were. Most of them were painkillers and such, but there were some other medicines too but Lightning wasn't sure what they were for.

"_Maybe I should take a look at the book that Prompto gave me."_

Lightning walked past Noctis but then she saw how he turned his head slightly.

Lightning went back to Noctis and she leaned little forward so that she could see him properly.

"Oh my god. Thank god that you're alive." Lightning smiled to him. She knew that it would feel stupid to speak to him like this when he couldn't answer. "Don't worry, you're completely okay, I look after you." Lightning said.

"I was so concerned. It was hard for me to want you fighting alone, but Prompto didn't let me go any closer. I'm sorry." Lightning stroke his cheek. "I wanted to help you:"

Noctis looked at Lightning, he was in agony but Lightning saw how hardly he just have wanted to smile, he had slight amount of happiness in his eyes. Lightning was confused how he could be happy; this might have been the worst day in his life, or one of them.

Lightning saw how Noctis tried to smile a little, his mouth corners moved slightly upwards.

"Wow that's amazing." Lightning said. "Prompto said that you'll be able to talk soon too. I'm sure that you're going to get your whole body under control too, it can take just some time."

Lightning smiled, she was so happy. "How are you feeling? Does it hurt a lot?" Lightning asked.

"Do you need painkillers? Try to smile again if you need." Lightning said.

His smiled, now he did it more noticeable than before.

"Okay, wait a second." Lightning went to the fridge and took one bottle of the painkiller liquid or so the label said. Lightning took a needle and came back to Noctis.

"Okay, this is in liquid form so I have to use needle. I'm not going to stick this through your throat, okay?" Lightning smiled and gave the painkillers to him. "Okay, we're done. You'll feel better soon." Lightning threw the bottle and needle into the trashcan.

"Try to smile and such so you can speak again too. You're doing so well. I'm going to stay here with you. I'll get the chair here so I can look after you if you need something." Lightning pulled the chair next to his bed and took the book which Prompto gave to her and started to read it.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

Noctis felt horrible, the pain was still there, the wound he got felt like it was burning. The deepest spot in his wound was so close to his intestines that it felt like the wound would open a little more and he would be almost cut in half. What a horrible feeling, he didn't want to be moved to anywhere, just the thought of the wound opening made him to gag.

He felt a little better when he saw that Lightning was there with him so he wouldn't have to lay there all alone. He knew that she felt a little awkward when she talked to him and he couldn't answer anything. Noctis hoped that he would get his voice back soon; it would make things so much easier, he really wanted to talk to her. Noctis was happy to see that she didn't leave him alone; she came to see how he was doing even though the benemoth was so close to her, she wasn't afraid of it.

Noctis would have wanted her to touch him, her touch made him feel better. Nobody haven't touched him so carefully for a long time, the only human contact he had made was made by battering some random people. Noctis would have been so happy if she would pat his shoulder or anything. But he was happy that she came to sit next to him.

Noctis saw how uncomfortable she felt because it was so hot in the room, she was sweating a little, but it didn't ruin her looks at all, she was always so beautiful, no matter what. Noctis didn't know that that perfect people existed, he didn't understand that why Lightning wanted to be around with someone like him, he was socially awkward and Noctis was sure that he wasn't good looking because no girl were showing interest on him. Plus he wasn't manly at all; no girl would have wanted a man like him. Noctis felt little bad that he wasn't one of those smart and good-looking people, he had no changes, Lightning just stayed because she wanted to help him, after a while she'd leave when she'd 'finished' looking after him. There wasn't any kind of relationship between them.

She deserved so much better, he was unhappy that he wasn't good enough, but he couldn't help it.

Noctis admired Lightning how she didn't really seem to care of his clumsiness and the fact that how awkward he was. She still decided to stay; she would do anything for the sake of other person.

The painkillers started to kick in; they made him feel a lot better and relaxed. He sighed of the relief.

Lightning jumped off the chair. "What did you just say?!" Lightning smiled, she was so excited.

Noctis didn't realize that he had just made a really quiet voice.

"Try to say something, you can do it." Lightning smiled.

Noctis couldn't get any words out of his mouth, his body felt oddly numb.

Lightning went to the other end of his bed where his head was resting.

"Please, just make one sound, just one. Okay?" Lightning said and ran her fingers through his hair.

Lightning started to rub his head carefully and she stroked his hair.

"Doesn't it feel good?" Lightning smiled and looked into his eyes.

Noctis blushed; it felt so stupid that his body could do that, but nothing else.

Lightning slid his other hand carefully down his neck and she smiled. "Relax, it feels good right?"

Noctis closed his eyes and sighed, her calm voice and careful touch made him to relax; he hoped that she would touch his neck again; he didn't know that it would feel so good.

Noctis smiled and he managed to mumble something through the oxygen mask.

"Good boy." Lightning smiled and came back to sit next to him on the chair. "Keep talking, the more you do talk, the quicker you will get your voice back."

"I gotta change those infusion liquids and blood plasma bags for you now, don't watch if you don't like to see blood." Lightning smiled.

Lightning went to get the bags and changed them. "You need a lot of blood; you lost almost 35 % of your blood. It's huge amount. You should be dead now but Gladiolus said that you're too stubborn to die, he was right. I'm glad." Lightning smiled. "Prompto is so good medic, he saved your life."

"L-Lightning." Noctis managed to mumble trough his oxygen mask.

"Yes your highness?" Lightning leaned little forward to hear him better. "Do you need something?" Lightning asked and stroke his cheek.

"T-Thank you." Noctis said.

"S-Sorry, It's h-hard to –"Noctis mumbled

"I-It's hard to speak." Noctis kept saying. "When this machine is…"

"…Forcing the oxygen to go down to my lungs." Noctis finished.

"I understand. You don't have to speak if it hurts or if it's hard. I'll be here for you as long as I need to." Lightning said with joyful voice.

"I'm sorry. I'm causing…so much trouble." Noctis mumbled.

"Don't be sorry, you're not causing any trouble. I'm just concerned that how you're feeling. Is everything okay?" Lightning asked.

"The painkillers helped me a lot. Thanks." Noctis smiled.

"Do you need to rest? I can go to sit on the sofa." Lightning said.

"No, no, don't" Noctis tried to cough but the ventilator pushed the air back in immediately, he felt really uncomfortable. "I-I hate this machine. Do you know when I can get rid of it?" Noctis asked.

Noctis saw that Lightning's expression changed, she looked a little sad now.

"…Noctis, I don't know. Prompto didn't know either. You broke your neck so you're paralyzed from neck to down." Lightning said little sadly, she wouldn't have wanted to tell him that, if she felt this bad then he must have felt even worse.

"What?" Noctis looked at Lightning in disbelief.

"I'm sorry Noctis." Lightning said.

Noctis just stared at her, he would be attached to this machine for the rest of his life and he'd never walk again. His life was taken away from him. He didn't just want to lay in the bed for the rest of his life.

Lightning took his hand into hers. "All the hope isn't gone; you might be able to get your locomotion back. I'll help you, I haven't ever helped a paralyzed person to get his locomotion back, but I know some other techniques." Lightning stroke his hair. "Massaging might help, or then not. I've heard that it have helped, but it's pretty rare I guess, but miracles happen."

"So there's only a small change? Miracles may happen but I have so bad luck that I shouldn't even dream about it. Everyone else is going to continue their lives. I'll eventually end up here alone. I've always wanted to have a family, or someone to spend time with at least." Noctis' said in sorrow.

"You won't end up being alone, I promise. There is somebody for you too, we all have. Nobody will end up being alone." Lightning tried to comfort him.

"You can have family too, nobody said you can't." Lightning rubbed his head.

"But-"Noctis tried to say.

"What kind of family have you dreamed of?" Lightning asked with calm voice. "You can tell me, I won't tell to anybody."

"I-I..."

"You can tell me, I won't judge you. Just be yourself, you don't have to try to impress me or anything. I will listen to you. Don't hesitate to talk with me if you want. I'm happy to help you if you need help." Lightning smiled. "Go on."

"I-I've always wanted to have kids. I want to prove it to myself that I can raise my kids well and to be a good father even though my father treated me so badly." Noctis blushed of the embarrassment. "I'd be happy to have some other person by my side too. I want to be loved."

"I like kids, they are so open-minded, for example they don't judge by looks like adults do. Kids don't take life too seriously; everything is always going to be fine. I really admire that; we adults should learn that from them." Noctis said. "I'm little disappointed that my childhood ended too early, but that's better than nothing."

"Wow..." Lightning said.

"I'm honest, please don't laugh at me." Noctis said. "I have feelings too even if I sometimes act so coldly. I'd be so happy to have a girlfriend once at least, but everybody hates me here and I don't want to marry some random girl from another kingdom." Noctis sobbed.

"This is so embarrassing, I feel myself like a complete jerk." Noctis said.

"Hey don't be sad. Nobody hates you, don't worry, you'll find a nice girl." Lightning said.

"It's so funny that you can be so tough and intimidating guy but at the same time you're so sensitive and sweet." Lightning smiled. "It's great if you want kids, many guys at your age don't think like you...yet I guess, some never will." Lightning said.

"Thank you..." Noctis said quietly. "Why did you stay? Why didn't you go also when everyone else left?" Noctis asked.

"Someone has to look after you and Prompto had to go to work. I have no hurry to anywhere so I don't mind if I have to look after you. I was so concerned about you that I would have stayed anyway, I thought that you were going to die." Lightning said. "I'm also very aware that how does it feel if you're left completely alone so I always stay so the person can have some company. I've been left alone many times, it doesn't feel good."

"I admire you Lightning." Noctis said and blushed. "How can somebody leave you on your own? You're so nice."

"It's a long story." Lightning said. "How do you feel? Do you need something?" Lightning asked.

"I feel little nauseated, I don't know why. I felt like this at the morning too." Noctis said.

"I'm not sure if I have any medicine for that here." Lightning said.

"That's okay." Noctis said.

Lightning admired Noctis' upper body for a moment; even if the huge wound was going across his chest and stomach he still looked really good.

Noctis turned his head little to look at Lightning. "Is everything okay?" Noctis asked.

Lightning blushed. "Eh, I just- Just thought that if you would like to have a blanket or something to cover your upper body or are you okay like that?" Lightning asked.

Noctis smiled. "I'm okay, do you mind?"

"_Not at all." _Lightning thought.

"I'm okay." Lightning smiled a little. "I don't know if commoners are allowed to see you topless, but I can leave if you feel embarrassed. I understand." Lightning said, trying to hide the fact that she was actually really pleased to look at him.

"This actually is the first time when Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus have seen me topless and now you have too. I'm not allowed to dress however I like; I'm not allowed to show this much skin to any people." Noctis smiled. "But I'm pretty sure that you won't take any pictures of me and put me on the cover of a magazine. I'm sorry that you have to see me like this."

Lightning blushed again. "Oh..." Lightning said. "Sorry I didn't know that the rules are that strict, I won't tell to anyone, sorry."

"It's okay." Noctis smiled. "Do you like it?" Noctis asked amused by her reaction.

"I ehm, umm..." Lightning stuttered she was hoped that he wouldn't ask that, he had seen how she looked at him.

"Don't worry. I won't tell to anybody." Noctis smiled. "I'll put a blanket on if you don't like what you're seeing; I can imagine how disgusting my chest looks like."

"Eh...You look very good." Lightning tried not to smile like an idiot. "I'm sorry that I'm acting like this, this is inappropriate your highness. I shouldn't be in the same room with you either, this is going off limits." Lightning said.

Noctis felt really happy that she liked the way he looked like, or so she said.

"I'm a normal man Lightning, I'm really happy to hear that you like it." Noctis smiled. "I actually feel quite good that you like it, I thought that women thought that I'm very ugly or something because I don't get any attention, I don't know if I'm ugly or something but I'm happy to hear a compliment from a woman." Noctis smiled "Thank you so much."

"Oh..." Lightning said really surprised. "Well, it's my pleasure." Lightning smiled.

"You can touch me if you want." Noctis smiled. "Don't be shy, I won't mind."

Lightning blushed. "Eh sorry? What?" Lightning asked confused.

"You can touch me if you want." Noctis said hoping that she would touch him.

"I'm the prince so what? It doesn't mean that I would be too good for you to touch or even look at, I'm a normal person. Go ahead if you want to." Noctis smiled.

Lightning was silent, she didn't know why was he behaving like that all of the sudden. She actually wanted to touch him, but she felt so embarrassed to admire and touch some random person, especially when the person was a prince.

"...I don't want to hurt you." Lightning whispered.

"You won't." Noctis said. "Go ahead." Noctis smiled.

Lightning looked at him and she hesitated but then she carefully touched Noctis' shoulder and she slid her hand along his chest and his abs which weren't damaged. Lightning touched his side also, admiring his body.

Noctis tried to keep his mouth shut to not to moan, he felt so special when a woman touched his body like that. Especially when the woman was Lightning. Noctis felt little embarrassed when he felt himself getting little turned on. Noctis blushed.

Lightning blushed too. "...That's impressing." Lightning said. "Sorry, I feel so embarrassed because I got so close to you. I'm not a royal or anything; I shouldn't be this close to you or to touch you."

"No, no, it's okay." Noctis smiled joyfully, he had forgotten the pain completely. "You don't have to be a royal; you can touch me if you want. I don't mind."

"Special rights for you only, okay?" Noctis smiled.

"I-I eh, okay." Lightning said embarrassed.

"You're in really good shape too." Noctis blushed.

"...Thanks...I guess." Lightning said. "Sorry, I just feel little embarrassed, because you're so important person here, you have the highest rank here, I probably have the lowest rank here, I don't even have a home or money. I feel like that I have to be humble, it's a great honor just to see you from so close distance." Lightning said. "I appreciate that a lot, I just feel like I'm not good enough to do these things, you can get better things, I'm sorry that I'm on your way."

Noctis was silent.

"Don't say that." Noctis said. "I feel horrible now."

"I'm sorry."

"Never ever look at my rank; you're as good as I am Lightning. You're-" Noctis blushed.

"Y-You're really important to me, your rank is just as high as mine is. It's a great honor for me to have you around. If people don't respect you then I make them to respect you, people will treat you like a princess when you're around me, how does that sound like?" Noctis smiled.

"Thanks, but I don't want you to force anyone to respect me. I'm really happy to be like this." Lightning said.

"Oh..." Noctis said surprised. "Are you sure? I'm not joking, I can make people to treat however you want them to treat you, I'll provide you everything you need."

"No, it's okay." Lightning sighed.

"Oh...okay." Noctis said puzzled. "Is it uneasy for you to be here? You're sweating."

"It's little warm, don't worry about it." Lightning smiled.

"You can switch those off if you want to. I'm not cold." Noctis said.

"Sorry, I cannot do that." Lightning said.

Noctis sighed. "Sorry." Noctis said. "And thank you."

"Huh?"

"I-I appreciate that you're keeping me company. I'm mostly alone." Noctis said. "I'm even happier because you're keeping me company." Noctis smiled.

"Alright." Lightning said.

"Are you okay?" Noctis asked. "Are you tired or something? You can go if you want I'm okay."

"Yes I am, let's try something..." Lightning said and pressed his palm and other parts of his hand. "Does this hurt?"

"No." Noctis answered.

"Your muscles are so relaxed, there's no tension in them at all." Lightning said.

"Is it bad?" Noctis asked.

"Only if it continues too long, then the muscles start to atrophy, but because you're in quite good shape I don't think that it will happen so quickly." Lightning said. "Try to close your fist."

"I can't Lightning, I'm trying but nothing happens. I don't know what to do." Noctis said. "Sorry."

"Keep trying, you'll get your locomotion back eventually." Lightning said to Noctis. "I can try to press and rub some places; the book says that it might help. Is that okay?" Lightning opened the book.

"Yes it is. I'm so happy that you're trying to help me." Noctis smiled.

Lightning lifted Noctis' arm up a little. "Tell me if it hurts." Lightning placed his hand back of the bed.

"I'm okay, thanks." Noctis said.

Lightning pressed the spot in middle of his palm and kept putting more pressure on the spot which he was pressing and she moved her other hand along his hand to his wrist.

Noctis gritted his teeth.

"Sorry." Lightning let go of his hand.

"I'm fine. It's nothing compared to the pain which I'm going through right now." Noctis said.

"I'll press that spot one more time, okay?" Lightning looked at Noctis.

"Okay." Noctis said.

Lightning pressed the spot in middle of his palm again.

"Okay, please let go, that hurts." Noctis said.

Lightning pressed as hard as she could.

Noctis moaned and his fist clenched.

Lightning smiled. "Look."

"That hurt." Noctis said and he turned his head a little to see Lightning.

"Your fist clenched." Lightning smiled. "Don't squeeze my hand so tightly." Lightning smiled.

Lightning saw the joy in his eyes but then it switched to embarrassment. "Sorry, sorry I didn't mean to." Noctis said and loosened his grip.

"Don't be sorry, you should be happy. Squeeze my hand." Lightning smiled.

"Huh?"

"Go ahead."

Noctis squeezed Lightning's hand carefully.

"Is that all you can do?" Lightning smiled.

"I'm not sure how tightly I can squeeze, but I don't want to hurt you, just in case if I'm back to normal." Noctis said.

"Alright."

"Again." Lightning said and placed her thumbs in the middle of his palm but she didn't press. Noctis' fist clenched.

"I didn't press it." Lightning said. "I knew you could do it." Lightning lifted his arm up a little so he could see.

Noctis stared at Lightning. "Wow..." Noctis said.

"Does this mean that –" Noctis tried to say.

"Yes. You'll recover, don't worry about it." Lightning said.

"Come little closer." Noctis smiled.

"Huh?" Lightning was little confused but she took a step forward.

Noctis grabbed her by her wrist and drew her little closer. "Can I have a hug? Please." Noctis asked.

"Umm, okay." Lightning said and hugged him.

It was a shame that Noctis couldn't smell how good she smelled like properly because the oxygen mask, but he still felt the warmth of his body. He felt really comfortable in her embrace, but at the same time he was little nervous that that was he acting properly, without trying too hard.

Noctis ran his fingers through her hair and sighed.

"Everything okay?"

"Yea..." Noctis smiled. "I just enjoy of this so much. I like to hug you, I feel so much manlier when I hug you too." Noctis said.

"You're so slender, you're so tiny." Noctis said.

"Eh, okay." Lightning said. "Can you let go of me?"

"Yes, wait." Noctis said.

"Do you like me? Be honest please, I'm afraid that you don't and you're there only because you have to." Noctis blushed.

Lightning patted his back. "I like you, alright?" Lightning sighed.

Noctis drew back and smiled. "I'm glad." Noctis said.

Noctis stroke her cheek and slid his hand along her neck for a short distance. "I-I'd like to-" Noctis blushed. "Sorry."

"What is it?" Lightning asked.

"Nothing, I forgot already." Noctis forced a smile on his face, he couldn't just say that he wanted to kiss her, she hardly even knew him. Noctis just could keep his thoughts in control, she was too beautiful.

Lightning smiled. "You're sometimes so weird." Lightning said.

"I know." Noctis mumbled smiling.

"Can you let go now? I'm little tired, I'd like to sit down." Lightning yawned.

"Oh, sorry." Noctis said and let go of her.

Lightning sat down and leaned little forward to cross her arms on the edge of Noctis' bed and then the laid her head on her arms.

"Sorry, I won't fall asleep; I'll just try to relax a little." Lightning said quietly.

Noctis stroke her hair. "You can go to sleep Lightning; I'm not in that bad condition that I would die right away if you wouldn't keep your eye on me." Noctis said.

"No, you can go to shock in any moment; your body is struggling to keep you alive. You heart might fail, I'm sorry to say it, but I don't want to risk your life." Lightning mumbled.

Noctis didn't say anything for a moment. "...I'm sorry. Can't you tell Ignis or Gladiolus to come here?" Noctis asked.

Noctis didn't want Lightning to leave, but he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable either. He didn't want Ignis, Gladiolus or Prompto to come to look after him; he was so embarrassed because he was so helpless. It was nice that Lightning took care of him, she wouldn't laugh at him. Even though he felt little himself little nervous and shy, he still enjoyed that she was there.

"They must be really busy." Lightning said. "Don't worry, I can sleep later."

Noctis looked at Lightning, he was little angry to himself because she had to go through this just because of him.

"Do you think that you could take a nap on that chair? You fit in it perfectly, the chairs are quite big here because they're designed for my sized guys, you're slender and small, just grab some pillows and blankets so I guess that it could be okay. What do you think?" Noctis smiled a little. "You can go to lay on the sofa too, but you don't have to be awake all the time right? If you're that close to me then I can wake you up if I need something, okay?"

Lightning eyed the chair, it indeed was quite big, maybe everything was little bigger here because Noctis was so tall and he had so...manly body build.

"That's okay I guess." Lightning said. "Do you need any painkillers or something else?"

"I'm okay." Noctis answered. "Make yourself comfortable; ask a maid to bring you hot chocolate or something if you want."

"...I'm okay." Lightning said and went to the cabinet and she grabbed some pillows and blankets. "I'll take a pillow for you too, do you need a blanket or do you think that it's too hot in here?" Lightning asked.

"I can take it so you can turn the heater down, so you'll be more comfortable too. I'll be okay." Noctis said.

"Tell me if you get cold." Lightning put the blanket on his and lifted his head to put the pillow under his head.

"Thanks. Please rest a little, I'll be fine." Noctis smiled.

"Thank you." Lightning stroked Noctis' hair and sat down on the chair.

"Sweet dreams." Noctis smiled.

"Try to rest so you'll get better." Lightning said.

"I will." Noctis smiled and sighed.


	7. Taking care of each other

**A/N: Sorry about the huge delay! I have been really busy for the last couple of week, but I have put a lot of my free time on writing this just for you to get to read it! ;) Enjoy and please review! **

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Noctis woke up in a terrible pain. Every time when the ventilator forced the oxygen down his lungs his chest rose slowly up and then it went back down which caused the burning pain. Every breath hurt even more. Noctis would just wanted to stop breathing, but he couldn't, the ventilator forced him to breath, he tried to not to breath, but as the pressure built up, he eventually had to give in.

Noctis tried to remove the mask, but Prompto had strapped it up so tightly that there was no change that he could take it off.

Noctis held his chest with his other hand and crumpled the sheet of his bed with his other hand. He grimaced and turned his head to see Lightning.

Lightning was curled up in the chair, she was sleeping really calmly, her breathing was calm and quiet. She was so pretty, Noctis wouldn't have wanted to wake her up but the pain was unbearable. He wasn't that kind of person who asked for help in every situation, but this was too much.

"Lightning." Noctis whispered and stroked Lightning's hair gently.

Noctis stroked her cheek. "Please wake up." Noctis said and gritted his teeth in agony.

Lightning moved a little and yawned. "Mmh?" Lightning mumbled half asleep.

"P-Please Lightning, please help me." Noctis said his voice trembling. "I feel horrible, the pain is unbearable."

Lightning got up from her chair right away and she drew the cover off. The wound and the skin around it was very red.

Lightning stared at the wound shocked.

"Please help me." Noctis begged. "I'll give you anything you want, the pain is unbearable, please help me Lightning."

"I'll help you, try to last little longer." Lightning said quickly and grabbed the book which Prompto had given to her and she started to riffle the pages of the book.

"Thank you." Noctis said and moaned when he accidently tried to take a breath on his own.

"Don't worry, this won't take long." Lightning said and read the page which she had opened.

"Turn the ventilator off Lightning, please. The wound will open even more." Noctis said with trembling voice and grabbed Lightning by the wrist. "Please."

Lightning put the book aside. "I can't do that." Lightning said. "You have to breathe."

"Just for a moment." Noctis begged.

Lightning leaned forward and closed his hand between her hands. "No is a no." Lightning said.

"Please." Noctis said. "Can I have some painkillers at least?" Noctis asked.

Lightning rubbed his hand carefully. "I'm sorry Noctis." Lightning said and leaned forward and slid her hand along his jaw. "I can't, I can't relieve your pain with painkillers, I've given you too much of them already, too much is too much. Sorry."

Noctis didn't want to hear that, he was silent.

"Don't worry, I'll try to help you in some other way. I'll come up with something." Lightning said. "Your hands are so cold, are you cold?"

"No." Noctis said. "I'm sorry, they've always been like that, I don't know why."

"Tall people tend to have cold hands, but I was just wondering if you would need a blanket." Lightning said.

Noctis grimaced and crumpled the sheet of his bed with his other hand. "I-I'm okay, don't worry." Noctis moaned.

Lightning came closer and wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. "I'm sorry, it's very hard to watch you suffering, I feel so bad when I'm just sitting here and I'm not doing anything to make you feel better." Lightning said and kissed his cheek.

Noctis' eyes widened of the shock and surprisement. Noctis froze and blushed, that was what he had been waiting for, but it happened so quickly that he went right into a shock kind of situation...mentally.

"I-I" Noctis stuttered.

Noctis was so nervous when she was so close and he felt how red his face was, his hands and voice was trembling, he had embarrassed himself again and he couldn't even help it.

"Can you take the oxygen mask off? Just for a moment?" Noctis asked shyly.

"No." Lightning drew back.

Noctis felt himself like an idiot, he was sure that she realized that what was going through his mind.

Then the pain hit again. It came in waves and stroke to his body.

Noctis moaned and he squeezed the metal framed bed and the metal distorted out of its previous shape. Noctis' knuckles started to bleed.

Lightning grabbed him by his wrist and pulled his hand off. "Don't squeeze so hardly, you're hurting yourself." Lightning said and grabbed a small piece of cloth and wiped the blood of his knuckles.

"I can't stand this." Noctis moaned. It was horrible when he was in so much pain but he could move, usually movement relieved the pain a little or so he thought.

"It will go away soon, I promise." Lightning stroke his silky hair.

"I want to die." Noctis held his chest with his other hand and his throat with his other hand.

"Stop it, that's not funny." Lightning said.

"Sorry." Noctis said and a sweat drop ran down his forehead and along his jawline.

"Is it too hot in here?" Lightning asked.

"No." Noctis closed his eyes.

"Open your eyes, don't faint." Lightning said. "And don't lie."

"It's not hot in here." Noctis looked at Lightning.

"Why are you sweating then?" Lightning asked.

"Am I?" Noctis asked surprised.

"Yes you are." Lightning said and wiped some of the sweat drops off his face with the piece of cloth.

"Sorry." Noctis said.

"Is it that bad?" Lightning asked concerned.

"The pain is horrible, I can stand it but it's unbearable when the pain comes in 'waves', I'm sorry if I'm loud, I don't have a good voice and nobody wants to hear a dying man moaning." Noctis said. "You can leave any time you want; you don't have to be polite okay? I don't mind."

"You're not dying and you don't have a bad voice." Lightning said. "And stop acting like you wouldn't care, I want to help you but you don't want me to help you." Lightning said little irritated.

Noctis was silent and he stared at Lightning.

"I'm sorry Lightning." Noctis said quietly. "I really appreciate the fact that you're helping me, I'm so lucky to have you around. Every prince doesn't receive treatment like this. I'm so lucky that you don't leave me alone suffering." Noctis said.

"Stop underestimating yourself, how can you have so low self-confidence? You're the most respected person in the kingdom and you still act like anybody wouldn't care of you." Lightning said. "What kind of leader are you?"

Noctis was silent, she hit to one of the most vulnerable spots. He didn't have any traits which good leaders had, he had bad self-esteem and he was shy and vulnerable. He wasn't respected person in his kingdom, people hated him.

"Bad." Noctis said quietly.

"Sorry?" Lightning asked.

"I'm a bad leader." Noctis said.

Lightning was silent now too.

Lightning took his hand in hers. "Sorry." Lightning whispered. "Did I hurt your feelings?"

Noctis didn't say anything for a moment. "No, I know it. It's a fact." Noctis said quietly.

"No, no...no it's not." Lightning said calmly. "I didn't mean to be rude; I just didn't know why you were behaving like that." Lightning said.

"It's okay. I know that I'm not good at this." Noctis said. "Not at all."

"I'm sorry your highness." Lightning said. "I didn't mean to offend; I'll take my words back. I shouldn't have questioned your mightiness, I apologize." Lightning said and loosened her grip of his hands.

"You're providing me a place to stay until I'm healed, I really appreciate that but still I'm acting really arrogantly, I'm sorry your highness, there's no better leader than you." Lightning said formally. "It's a great honor for me to follow your orders and that that you've let me to meet you. I regret greatly what I said, please forgive me." Lightning said and let go of his and moved the chair backwards and bowed.

Noctis was silent.

"Lightning, what have I said about using my title?" Noctis sighed, his voice trembling a little of the pain. "Stop it, I feel embarrassed. It doesn't feel good to be treated like that."

"That's only command which I can't obey." Lightning said. "I'm sorry your highness."

"Come here." Noctis said.

Lightning walked next to his bed. "At your service." Lightning said.

Noctis grabbed her by her wrist. "Stop it." Noctis gritted his teeth, he was getting little irritated.

"I can't obey your command your highness." Lightning said.

"What's wrong with you? Talk to me normally, I don't want you to behave like that." Noctis said.

"I can't obey that command either, I'm sorry." Lightning said. "I haven't finished my mission."

Noctis drew her little closer and looked into her eyes, even though it made him really nervous and he was trying to not to blush, her eyes were aqua colored, she had really beautiful eyes.

"No you're not, you haven't healed yet. You're under medical supervision; you don't have to obey any commands." Noctis said seriously.

"Things are different in my kingdom, the mission will go on as long as it needs to, it follows me to the grave." Lightning said. "I'm acting inappropriately, I'm not allowed to touch you or to be in the same room with you, I've done both I'm just a soldier. I am way too close to you right now too, but I can't leave you here alone either, I'm doing wrong. I'm a soldier, I'm an intruder, I shouldn't be in your kingdom now either." Lightning said. "I'm breaking every single rule."

"Don't go please." Noctis said. "I'm not commanding you to do anything; my word isn't your law."

"Can't you think about how I feel when you discriminate me only because I'm a royal? You're saying that you're allowed to touch or be around me only because I am me. Can't you understand how lonely I am?" Noctis said sadly.

"I want you to treat me like I would be a commoner; I can't help it that I'm a royal. I want to spend time with you; I don't want you to feel special about if you only look at my rank and you think that it's cool to hang out with a royal. I want people to look at me, not at my rank." Noctis grimaced when the wave of pain hit again.

"I've have made a vow." Lightning said and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm not sure what to do...I shouldn't be talking like this to you, I'm sorry."

"Yes you should." Noctis said. "I want to be your friend. Can you forget your vow for a moment? Please."

"I'm not really sure that can I...I should be heading back to Cocoon already, they might think that I'm dead or then they might not. They might come to look for me and if they find me, then me and my family will be in big trouble. I might get accused of treachery and I'll get slaughtered. Not to mention that what kind of danger I put you and your kingdom in, it'd be wiser for me to leave and get executed, because all this is my fault, than risk the wellbeing of you and your whole kingdom." Lightning sighed, her voice trembling a little. "I'm stupid; I didn't think that before, I must leave."

Noctis grabbed her by her wrist. "No, don't go, please." Noctis begged. "I want to get to know you."

"Sorry." Lightning whispered sadly.

"I won't let anyone to cross the border, don't worry." Noctis said quickly. "I won't let anyone to come in or go out of the kingdom, anybody from your kingdom won't find you, I promise. I have a good army, were completely safe. I won't let them to get you back to Cocoon to be executed, don't worry, you're completely safe." Noctis said. "Please sit down."

"It's not that easy-" Lightning said quietly and sat down.

"If someone is lucky enough manages to sneak in my kingdom, I'll make sure that he'll get eliminated, I have huge army and I can hire bodyguards for you." Noctis said.

"I understand but I'm still quite worried." Lightning sighed.

"Don't worry; nobody will know that you're here." Noctis said. "Please stay here with me, I want you to stay. I want to get to know you, you're..."

"...You're so nice person." Noctis said. "I'm happy that you came here, I want to have new friends. I want to do something else than work all the time, you don't have any hurry anywhere right now right? I want to spend the little time what I have with you." Noctis blushed.

Lightning was silent for quite long time.

"Maybe I can stay for a little while." Lightning sighed.

"Thank you." Noctis smiled. "Can I have a hug? Please? I'm sorry that I can't move properly, I hope that you don't mind, you don't have to if you don't want, I'm so repulsive."

"You're not repulsive." Lightning said. "But I shouldn't be in so close contact with you, I know that commoners aren't allowed to touch royals and it's extremely forbidden to come even that close. I know the general rules Noctis, I shouldn't have touched you. Didn't you remember that you have to marry another royal from another kingdom? Only she is allowed to touch you. I also said that your body build is quite nice, it makes it even worse. I'm sorry, I'm just a woman, I shouldn't have said it out loud how you look like." Lightning said.

Noctis felt so bad when she felt like that, Noctis wanted her to touch him but she didn't think that it was allowed. Noctis hated the stupid rules; almost all the people knew the general rules. Noctis felt like he had been locked in a cage, he'd never get out, people judged him by what he did, he had rules which told him what he was allowed to do and other way around.

"I haven't been arranged a marriage Lightning." Noctis stroke her cheek. "You didn't do anything wrong, you can touch me, I have given you the permission to do that okay? I hate to say that I have the highest rank here, but I do, which means that I can give you the permission to do things what other commoners aren't allowed to do. I won't get you executed if you do something like that, you're allowed to do those things, I won't be mad if accidently do something what you think is 'wrong', it's completely okay."

"And if you are confused and don't know what to do in certain situations then you can ask for help from anyone, _any time._ Try to make yourself comfortable, I'll take care of you..." Noctis' didn't finish his sentence; he closed his eyes and sighed.

"Are you okay?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, I just realized something." Noctis mumbled his eyes shut, he realized that he wasn't able to move anymore, he couldn't take care of Lightning and the kingdom was doomed, a paralyzed prince couldn't lead the kingdom. He didn't know if he still had to marry someone, but if he would have to, it would be extremely awkward, he didn't want to be taken care by...some random person.

A moan escaped from Noctis' lips. His voice was trembling.

"What's wrong? Tell me!" Lightning asked concerned and got up.

Noctis would have wanted to control of his breathing on his own, he felt like there would be some object on top of his chest which was making him hard to breath, but the ventilator just kept doing its thing.

Noctis' chest hurt like hell, his heart was hurting too. He couldn't have ever imagined that a person would feel that much pain at the same time, but now he knew. Then he felt how daggers started to pierce his heart, or that's what it felt like.

Noctis moaned and gritted his teeth.

"Noctis what's wrong?!" Lightning shouted to him.

Noctis couldn't answer, he was concentrating on enduring the pain, the wince on his face was a clear sign how he was feeling.

Lightning looked at him concentrated and she stroked his cheek. "Noctis, tell me where it hurts, I can't help you if you don't tell me." Lightning said, trying to stay calm.

Noctis relaxed just a little and he grabbed Lightning by her forearm. "M-My heart hurts." Noctis moaned. "...please give me painkillers or something." Noctis said.

"Oh shit." Lightning cursed and grabbed the cellphone of the table and called to Prompto.

"Wait just little longer, okay? I'll help you." Lightning said to Noctis and Prompto picked up phone.

"Hello, what makes you to call me in a-"Prompto spoke to the cellphone.

"Noctis' heart is hurting, what I need to do?" Lightning asked quickly and walked back and forth.

"Uhm, can I have more details? It's kinda hard to say what's wrong with so little information." Prompto asked.

"It's not funny! He's suffering in front of my eyes, what do I do?!" Lightning shouted to the cellphone irritated.

"Can I have moar information?" Prompto chuckled.

"What information jackass?" Lightning asked, she was little dazed so she had a hard time actually listening that what Prompto said.

"Uhm, does he feel pressure on his chest or something?" Prompto asked.

"Do you feel pressure on your chest?" Lightning asked from Noctis and stroked his hair.

Noctis looked at Lightning his eyes full of agony. "Yes." Noctis managed to say.

"Yes." Lightning said to the cellphone.

"He's having a heart attack." Prompto said like it wouldn't be a big deal.

"How can you be so indifferent!? What can I do?" Lightning said to the cellphone.

"Don't panic, grab some aspirin and shove it down his throat." Prompto snickered.

Lightning threw the phone on the chair, pissed off by Prompto's behavior.

Lightning grabbed a packet of aspirin and took one little pill from the packet and went back to Noctis. "Okay, just swallow this so you'll be allrig-"

"Dammit!" Lightning hit her palm against her forehead cursing.

Noctis didn't say anything.

"How the hell am I going to give this to you if you can't swallow anything?" Lightning asked from herself out loud.

"_...Maybe, just maybe..."_

Lightning patted Noctis' cheek to make him to look at her. Noctis turned his head.

"Is it okay if I hate your oxygen mask off? Just for few seconds, okay?" Lightning asked.

Noctis forced a smile on his face, he was actually really happy to get rid of it. "Y-Yeah." Noctis said.

As fast as Noctis said that, Lightning drew the strap of the gas mask over his head to remove it, Lightning took the mask off.

Noctis' chest dropped down immediately and Noctis gasped. He put his hand over his mouth and started to cough.

"Get the hand off your mouth and open it." Lightning said and moved his hand aside.

Noctis opened his mouth a little, he felt like he had to gasp for air, but his chest didn't move up or down, he felt like he'd be slowly suffocating.

"More." Lightning said and he opened his mouth and Lightning put the pill under his tongue.

"Atta boy." Lightning smiled and put the oxygen mask over his mouth again.

Noctis was so relieved to get some oxygen again. He closed his eyes and tried to relax as the pain slowly faded away.

"Does it feel better now?" Lightning asked after a while.

Noctis nodded and smiled.

"Good." Lightning turned around to go and sit down on the chair but Noctis grabbed her by her wrist.

"Huh?" Lightning said.

"Can you take the mask off, please?" Noctis said.

"Why on the earth?" Lightning asked.

"Please." Noctis begged.

"No."

"Prince's order."

"You said that I don't have to follow your orders."

"Yes you have." Noctis smiled.

"So you can ask me to do pretty much anything? I mean _anything_, that's not fair. You first promise something and then you take your words back, you're using your rank for wrong purposes." Lightning said. "Now I know why there are no women in the castle, but the maids."

"No, no, I'd never ask anything like that, trust me." Noctis said. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that like that, I'm just used to that that I get everything that I want. I'm a spoiled brat, I know, sorry." Noctis said.

"I can see that." Lightning said. "Everything is so fancy here, even your clothes, I thought that princesses have fancy clothes and prince's don't have so many. But I find it amusing that you're such a goth."

"I'm not a Goth." Noctis said.

"Yes you are. You're wearing black from head to toe." Lightning said.

"What's wrong with that?" Noctis asked "And why do you find princes amusing?"

"You look so pale already, which make you to look sick, but the black clothes make you look even paler." Lightning said. "Princes are amusing because all they have has to be perfect and they are formal in all situations, like you couldn't be able to make any other expressions or so. I also find it funny that young adult princes like don't seem to ever have fun anywhere and stuff." Lightning smiled.

Lightning walked to coat hooks and took the black military styled jacket off the hook and sat on the edge of Noctis' bed.

"May I sit here?" Lightning asked.

"Yes." Noctis smiled happily.

Lightning lifted the jacket up. "I assume that this is yours?" Lightning said.

"Yes." Noctis said.

"This is really nice jacket, I like military type stuff." Lightning smiled. "But you can't see how cool it is if you're wearing a black shirt under it. From far away, you can't even see that if you're wearing a jacket or not. The details here aren't very visible either, they're kinda useless unless someone comes really close to you." Lightning said.

"Oh..."

"This would look so good if..." Lightning smiled.

"Yes?"

"If this would be navy blue, little darker than navy blue, but not black, it'd match your hair really well." Lightning smiled and eyed the jacket.

On the shoulders of the jacket were embroideries with little bluish black calligraphy text 'N.L.C' embroidered on both sides.

"What does N.L.C stand for?" Lightning asked.

"It's my name." Noctis said.

"Prince N.L.C?" Lightning turned around and looked into his eyes smiling amused.

"N-No." Noctis blushed.

"Tell me more." Lightning grinned.

"I-It's an abbreviation of my name." Noctis stuttered.

"Get to the point." Lightning said. "And stop stuttering, I'm not that scary."

Noctis blushed and then he shyly said: "I am Noctis Lucis Caelum." Noctis forced a smile on his face, he was embarrassed of his red face and stuttering.

"Fancy royal name." Lightning smiled.

Noctis sighed.

"It's cool, don't worry. It's an exotic name." Lightning stroke his cheek. "I like it, it'd be so boring if your name would be Jack or something. I think that it's much better to have more unique name, I've never heard that someone's name would be Noctis.

"O-Okay." He stuttered.

"Well, now you only need to buy dog tags and then your look is complete, nobody will recognize you." Lightning smiled.

"Do you want to keep the jacket?" Noctis asked.

Lightning looked at him really confused. "So you're going to give all of your clothes which I touch to me?"

"N-No no, or yes if you want, I can buy new clothes." Noctis smiled. "I can give it to you if you want it; just tell me what you like so I'll give it to you."

Lightning shook her head and laid the jacket on Noctis' lap. "You're crazy."

"Just take it." Noctis smiled. "There's my name on it, you can wear it here in the castle only or wherever you like, some stupid collectors want that kind of stuff so you can sell it later if you want, but you don't really have to, I'll give you money. I mean that that if you go back to Cocoon and you suddenly run out of money, then you have something to sell. The value is even higher when I've worn it, it's worth of many millions, people are crazy."

"Why and who wants to buy this if there's only your name on it?" Lightning asked.

"I-I'm...I guess that I'm famous or something..." Noctis said quietly. "More like infamous I guess...I'd rather not to talk about it right now." Noctis said, knowing very well the fact that it was because he was so well known in all kingdoms, just because he had caused so much destruction. It was very hard to get know so well.

Lightning patted his cheek. "It's okay." Lightning said. "Do you use a lot of perfume or why all of your clothes smell like this?" Lightning asked and picked up the jacket and smelled the manly fragrance of it; it smelled just like he did, Lightning shivered a little because the wonderful smell. She felt little stupid when she realized that she was sniffing his jacket.

"No."

"No?" Lightning asked.

"No."

"No way." Lightning said.

"No I don't." Noctis said. "Why do you ask?"

Lightning blushed little. She couldn't believe how someone could naturally smell so good; Lightning was trying to resist the temptation to go closer just to smell how good he smelled.

"Ehm." Lightning said wondering that what she should say. "I don't know, maybe this jacket just smells so good." Lightning smiled.

Noctis smiled too. "You're so funny." Noctis said. "You can have it, for real." Noctis said.

"I have one jacket of yours already." Lightning said.

"Now you have two, isn't it cool to have prince's jacket? Everybody is going to be so jealous." Noctis smiled.

"Yeah ha-ha." Lightning said unamused.

"What's wrong?" Noctis asked.

"I don't want to make people jealous." Lightning said.

"Okay, let's not talk about it." Noctis said. "Let's see what it looks like on you." Noctis said and grabbed the jacket.

"You don't have to dress me." Lightning said and took the jacket and put it on.

"It's so pretty." Noctis smiled.

"You wear pretty clothes?"

"Oh...No, no, I don't." Noctis said.

"Our pretty prince." Lightning said and took the jacket off and put it on the chair in front of her.

Noctis couldn't resist the temptation and he put his hand on Lightning's waist and slid them just an inch lower. "You're pretty." Noctis said quietly.

Lightning turned her head to look over her shoulder to see Noctis. Lightning looked him into his eyes unamused.

Noctis blushed.

Lightning moved his hands away. "Don't touch me." Lightning said. "I have not given you the permission to touch me, you need permission too, prince or not." Lightning said.

"I'm sorry, that was inappropriate, I forgot my manners." Noctis said. "Not be mad at me, please. I don't really know how to handle women." Noctis said, partly lying.

Lightning sighed. "Alright."

"I won't-"Noctis didn't finish his sentence, his stomach growled.

Noctis blushed even more.

"Are you hungry?" Lightning asked.

"A little." Noctis said. "Sorry."

"Stop apologizing." Lightning said. "I'm afraid that you can't eat, I'm sorry." Lightning said quietly.

"Huh?"

"Do you think that you can handle it? I'm pretty sure that it won't take long before you can eat something; your stomach is in quite bad shape and...Well don't worry it won't take a long time. Lightning said.

No he couldn't handle it, he was starving; he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday. Noctis knew that Lightning was about to say that he couldn't eat because he was paralyzed, she was just trying to be polite.

"I guess so." Noctis said. "I'm just a little worried that my weight drops too much I-"

"Don't worry about it." Lightning said. "You'll stay in shape."

Noctis' stomach growled again. Noctis put his hand on his stomach, being careful to not to touch the wound.

"Sorry, I can't help it." Noctis said embarrassed.

Lightning put her hand on his. "No, it's okay." Lightning said. "You're lying, how hungry are you?"

Noctis was quiet for a minute but then he admitted. "Very hungry." Noctis said. "Don't worry, I'm fine."

"I'll call to Prompto, he knows what to do." Lightning said and took the phone. "We can't starve you to death."

Noctis took her hand into his while she was trying to call to Prompto. "Are you hungry?" Noctis asked.

"No, I don't eat a lot." Lightning said.

Lightning called to Prompto.

Prompto picked up the phone. "Did he die or what?" Prompto snickered.

"Can he eat anything?" Lightning asked from Prompto. She decided to ignore his idiocy.

"No." Prompto said to the cellphone.

"Are you f-." Lightning said to the phone.

"Infusion liquids will keep him alive, don't worry. He can't eat anything solid." Prompto said. "Okay? I gotta go." Prompto said and hung up the call.

Lightning stared at the beeping cellphone for a moment and then she threw it back on the chair. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.

"It's okay." Noctis said. "I'm not _that _hungry."

"Stop lying, it's not polite." Lightning said.

"Sorry." Noctis sighed.

"What do you like to do? Are you bored?" Lightning asked.

"I don't know." Noctis said.

"...Okay." Lightning said and waited for a moment and then tickled his stomach.

Noctis flinched and blushed.

"You're so odd. Why are you so nervous?" Lightning asked.

"I-I'm not nervous, that just-" Noctis stuttered.

Lightning's mouth corners rose slowly up. "Are you shy or something?" Lightning grinned.

Noctis knew that she'd notice that sooner or later, he felt so embarrassed. He couldn't control his blushing and stuttering, it was so humiliating. Noctis was always really nervous around beautiful women; Lightning was the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He was making himself look like an idiot, he wanted to be appealing but he couldn't control his nervousness, which wasn't appealing at all.

"N-No, no, no." Noctis said quickly. "What makes you think like that? I'm not shy, princes aren't shy and and..." Noctis said quickly, trying to save the situation

Lightning smiled. "I'm amused." Lightning smiled.

"How dare you mock me?" Noctis said seriously, trying to regain his self-respect and trying to gain some respect from her too.

"I'm not mocking you." Lightning said.

"Show me some respect, please." Noctis said.

"As you wish your highness." Lightning sighed and shook her head.

Noctis felt himself so foolish again; he shouldn't have been so rude. She was just trying to take care of him.

Noctis laid his hand on her shoulder and slid it down her arm. "I'm sorry." Noctis said. "I shouldn't have been so rude."

"Rude and shy at the same time, that's so interesting." Lightning said.

"And arrogant." Noctis said. "You're too nice just go already, I don't mind."

Lightning turned to look at him. "Huh?"

"Can't you see what kind of arrogant prick I am? Are you blind?" Noctis said. "Normal people don't hang out with people like me, I know it already."

"Well thanks a lot." Lightning said and got off the bed and sat on the chair and started to read the book.

"What?"

"I can't leave right now even if you wanted to, or practically I could, but Prompto wouldn't be happy." Lightning said and fixed her position a little. "You can keep on mocking if you think that that it makes you feel better, I can go to get earplugs, or I can just ignore you, however the prince wants."

Noctis hit his palm on his forehead little too hard, he ended up getting a sore red spot on his forehead. He just wanted to punch himself as hard as he could.

Noctis thought again what he said, he never though what he was going to say before he said it, now he had managed to offend Lightning even though he just wanted to mock himself.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend; I didn't realize that I offended you. You're the sweetest person in the world because you can stand me, I just felt so bad because you have to be here just because of me." Noctis said.

Lightning sighed and put the book away. "However." Lightning said and walked to the cabinets at the other end of the room.

"Just a minute."


	8. Problems with temper

**A/N: 2k views achieved! Thanks guys (and girls)! Special thanks for my sexy reviewers! Stay sexy! Remember to Read & Review! ;) **

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Lightning laid the equipment on the table next to Noctis' bed and put plastic gloves on.

Let's see how the wound looks like. I have to clean it." Lightning said.

"You don't have t-"

"Stop it, it might hurt, but you'll heal quicker." Lightning said. "Okay?"

"Thanks." Noctis said and grabbed her by her wrist. "Sorry, we can solve this later right? I know how bad you feel right now. I'll compensate this to you, okay?" Noctis said and let go of her wrist.

Lightning rolled her eyes. "However."

"Say something if it hurts. We can have short breaks, just tell me if you feel like it." Lightning said. "I'll try to be careful." She said and took the book and left it open on the table.

"Thanks."

"I have to take that plastic thing off your chest, it may feel little odd and it might hurt a little, okay?" Lightning said and looked at the book.

"Huh?" Noctis said. "What plastic thing?"

"I dunno. It keeps the edges of the wound together. I must clean...uhm, the space inside the wound I guess." Lightning said. "I'm not a medic, sorry, I'll do my best."

"Are you going to open it?" Noctis stared at Lightning shocked.

"I have to, I'll be careful. Relax." Lightning said.

"Relax? I don't want my intestines to be all over the floor, the wound is so deep that my stomach will tear open completely if you remove the uh...plastic thing." Noctis said little afraid and miserable, he couldn't do anything about it, he couldn't protest, he wasn't going anywhere.

"You'll thank me later, you can handle this, I know it." Lightning smiled a little and stroked his hair. "Okay, one...two-"

"No, no, not yet, wait, please!" Noctis begged.

Lightning took a good grip of the plastic strip which was put on the wound. She started to pull it towards herself.

Lightning was disgusted by what she saw; the wound had healed a little so as she pulled the strip, the skin on the edges of the wounds started to tear with the plastic strip. The wound started to bleed again, it didn't bleed a lot, but it still was really obnoxious to see, the wound was indeed really deep, it was no wonder why Noctis didn't want it to be opened. It was really repulsive to watch, but Lightning tried to not to grimace or show any signs of disgust, she didn't want Noctis to know how bad the situation really was. It'd be better to him not to know yet.

Noctis' eyes widened and he grimaced.

Noctis grabbed Lightning by her wrist. "Get your hands off me goddammit!" Noctis shouted and gritted his teeth.

"Calm down, this won't take long." Lightning said. "Let me do my job, I'm not enjoying of this either."

Noctis' let go of her wrist but he pushed Lightning back.

"Don't touch it!" Noctis moaned and held his chest.

Lightning walked back to next to his bed. "Don't yell at me jackass, I'm trying to help!" Lightning said. She tried to be nice, but now she felt little irritated already.

Lightning stretched her hand out to take a grip of the plastic strip, but Noctis pushed her hand aside. "Don't touch it!" Noctis moaned. "How dare you to question my orders?!" Noctis shouted his voice trembling. Noctis didn't think about what he said, he just wanted to Lightning to stop, he was used to threatening people if they didn't follow his orders and so he did now too.

Noctis gritted his teeth and he moaned. Noctis took a good grip of the oxygen mask to and he took it off to relieve the pain just a little. He didn't want his chest to move, he felt like his stomach would rip open at any minute.

Lightning took the mask and put it on his face again. "Don't touch the mask, you're going to kill yourself idiot." Lightning said.

"What?! Do you want to be executed? You'd better to start to listen my orders or I'll execute you by myself!" Noctis yelled to her in agony.

Lightning slapped him.

"I'm trying to help you your highness, so shut the fuck up." Lightning said. "Do you think that I care of your threats?"

Lightning took a good grip of the plastic strip and she started to pull it again, she felt bad when she was inflicting so much pain, Lightning hadn't ever seen anyone to be tortured, but she guessed that it was a little similar to this.

Lightning tore the plastic strip quickly off and Noctis moaned loudly.

The wound was now completely open, it looked horrible and she was sure that the pain was just as horrible too.

Lightning felt even more disgusted now, there wasn't a lot of flesh which was protecting intestines, she didn't want to mess up his stomach. Now she had to stick her hand awfully deep into his stomach, Lightning grimaced of the disgust, she couldn't do anything but to hope that Noctis didn't see it.

Lightning took a cloth and put antiseptic liquid on it. "Don't worry, we're almost done." Lightning said and stroked his cheek. "Try to relax so your muscles will relax too, it hurts more if you're flexing your muscles." Lightning said and started to clean the wound.

Noctis clenched his fists and moaned. "Ple-Please stop, I can't stand it." Noctis cried out.

"I'm sorry; I don't want to do this, but I just have to." Lightning said and looked at Noctis, he was sweating.

Lightning took a towel and wiped the sweat drops off his forehead. "Okay let's have a short break or do you want me to continue?

"S-Stop." Noctis sobbed.

Lightning put a towel on his wound and to the other end of the bed and she rubbed his head. "Relax, think something else but the pain, something what you like or things like that." Lightning said. "Does this feel good?"

"Uh-huh." Noctis managed to say. "Please don't touch the wound again, it hurts too much, I can't stand it." Noctis begged.

"I have to, I'm sorry. You'll die if the wound gets infected." Lightning said. "We can't put your life in risk."

"I don't care. I'd rather die." Noctis moaned when his stomach growled.

"I care, stop being so selfish. It's not just about you, what would you mom think if you'd say that you want to die?" Lightning said and went back and took the towel off his wound. "This won't take long, I promise." Lightning tried to comfort him.

Noctis didn't want to speak of his mom, the memories kept haunting him, he just wanted to forget everything. "Don't! Lightning, wait! Please listen to me"" Noctis sobbed.

"Sorry." Lightning started to clean his wound again, she was almost done, but when she started to clean the deepest spot in his stomach the expression on Noctis' face turned from agony to calm and peaceful.

Lightning stopped right away. "Are you okay?" Lightning asked.

"I don't feel anything." Noctis sighed relieved.

Lightning leaned over him to see his eyes. His eyes were wandering from place to place. Lightning put her hand on his chest, his heart was beating rapidly.

"Oh shit." Lightning panicked, she called Prompto again.

Prompto picked up the phone.

"Yes?" Prompto said.

"I cleaned his wound, which hurt him, but now he doesn't feel anything." Lightning asked concentrated. "What do I do, quickly please."

"Ugh, just make sure he doesn't bleed. He's in shock, keep the room temperature high. Everything else is okay. Prompto said. "Check if his hands are cold once in a while; if they are then raise the room temperature."

"But his heart is beating rapidly Prompto." Lightning said. "What does it mean?"

"There's a green bottle with green label on it in the fridge, take it and a needle and you know the rest." Prompto said. "You'll be fine, sorry I have to teach the kids too, I'll come to have a look when I get from work." Prompto said and hung up the phone.

"Wouldn't it be wiser to clean the wound now, when I can't feel it?" Noctis said.

Lightning took the green labeled bottle, she wasn't sure what it was but she just took a needle and injected the fluid into the veins of his forearm. "Say if you get cold." Lightning said.

Then Lightning went back and finished cleaning up the wound and bandages on it. Then she went to get some ice and came back and put in on his bandages.

Noctis didn't say anything; he was so relieved that it was over.

"Sorry Lightning." Noctis said quietly. "That I threatened you, I wasn't serious. I'm just so used to do that, I use violence to command people if they don't listen. Please forgive me, but you don't have to if you don't want to, I know that what kind of prick I can be.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I can see that you're displeased. I don't want to force you to stay here." Noctis said. "I don't mind if you leave."

"It's okay; I can imagine how much it hurt." Lightning said. "Sorry." Lightning said and stroke his hair.

"Do you really mean that? Why aren't you mad? I was really rude, I mean _really rude_." Noctis said.

"Because I'm too tired to think clearly." Lightning sighed.

Please go to eat something and go to get some sleep. I'll be okay; I have my cellphone with me so I can call to you if I need help so you don't have to be here all the time. Okay?"

"Prompto will beat me up if leave you unsupervised." Lightning said.

"He doesn't batter women, and if he some odd reason does then let me know so I get him executed." Noctis said.

"You're overacting." Lightning said.

"No, I'm just making sure that nobody hurts you." Noctis said. "

"But-"

"No buts." Noctis said. "You deserve to be treated well; you have the same rights to order my employees around as I have. So please don't strain yourself too much."

"...Thanks." Lightning said and gave the cellphone to him. "Your number."

Noctis took the phone and started to type the number.

"Why does these cellphones need to be so big? I haven't ever seen cellphones like those which umm...don't have keys. Actually I haven't ever had own cellphone. They're so expensive in Cocoon."

"I don't know, I just like big cellphones. I can get you a smaller one if you really want, this's some cheap supermarket cellphone, I'll get you a custom made cellphone." Noctis said and gave the cellphone back to Lightning. "It's my personal number, I change it now and then for the safety reasons, don't tell my number to anyone else, okay?"

"Thank you. I won't tell to anyone." Lightning said. "What's wrong with normal cellphones then? Aren't these cellphones quite expensive already?" Lightning asked.

"No." Noctis smiled a little. "Do you want to design the cellphone by yourself?"

"Huh?" Lightning had a really questioning expression on his face.

"Huh?" Noctis said amused. "I'll hire a designer, you'll say what you want and he'll draw as many pictures until you're pleased by what you see."

"Oh..." Lightning said. "I don't need another phone or I don't know if I need at all, unless I have to call to you or Prompto."

"What year is it in Cocoon?" Noctis asked.

Lightning looked at Noctis like he would be crazy. "2045"

"Oh, it's the same year as here." Noctis said amused.

"What are you trying to say?" Lightning asked.

"Are you telling the truth? Cocoon sounds like it would be a developing country." Noctis said. "I'm not trying to offend, but I'm so confused how you don't really know how to use high tech gadgets and how you are so modest. You don't want anything what I try to give to you, usually people are grateful if they get something, you don't want anything 'useless'."

Lightning thought about it for a moment.

"...It's not polite to offer too valuable gifts, you have to give a gift in return to the person who gave you something, it must be at least as valuable as the gift which you received. I don't have money to reimburse all of this what you've given to me. I shouldn't be accepting any gifts; you're providing me a place to stay already. Everything is so fancy here; don't you understand how much money has you spent on me already by providing me food and other that kind stuff which we need in everyday life?" Lightning said. "Especially when all the everyday supplies here are extremely expensive too.

"And this is prince's castle, I'm just a soldier. I'm an employee...from other kingdom, soldiers aren't allowed to into the castle expect when they receive a mission. I'm from other kingdom, you shouldn't have let me stay in the kingdom in the first place because I'm a soldier and soldiers from other kingdoms will be killed if they get caught. You can't be sure who I really am, I'm your enemy, here and right now too, you're so vulnerable right now. It's so easy for me to kill you now, if I would want to." Lightning sat down.

"And you're trying to be so nice and you're offering me all kind of expensive stuff, which I wouldn't have ever been able to afford. You're giving me your personal stuff, which I don't even need. I can't reimburse the personal stuff what you give to me, that's why I don't want to take you clothes or anything. I don't know what you are planning to do to me, I don't understand your behavior. You gave me your personal phone number too, it's really risky to give your personal phone number for a stranger." Lightning shook her head.

"I trust you. You don't seem like that kind girl who really enjoys killing people even if you're a soldier. You look so innocent, yo-...you're so pretty." Noctis blushed "I was so surprised that a girl like you was a soldier. I don't consider you as an enemy or a soldier here, you're just a normal girl, who just happens to be from other kingdom."

"You don't have to reimburse anything, I understand that your culture is little different than our culture, but here you don't reimburse anything. Especially things which I give to you, I'm happy if you accept my gifts. I guess that refusing a gift who someone is offering is a little impolite. For example I feel like that you either don't like me or the gift if you don't want to receive it." Noctis said.

"Giving personal stuff is uhm...sign of trust and...yea sign of trust." Noctis smiled. "If it rains or something like that, it's polite for guy to give his jacket to the girl or something like that." Noctis said.

"...So you're behind all this craziness?" Lightning smiled.

"Not just because of me, it was like this when I was born." Noctis chuckled, but then he grimaced.

"Ow." Noctis said.

"Is everything okay?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, the painkillers are about to wear out." Noctis said.

"Alright." Lightning said and got up. "Do you need painkillers or something? I'll take a nap, is that okay?"

"No, it's okay." Noctis smiled. "You look so tired, you can sleep as long as you want, you have no hurry to anywhere. I'm okay, you don't have to come to come to see how I'm doing for a while." Noctis said.

"Thanks." Lightning said and folded a blanket next to Noctis and she threw the plastic gloves into the dust bin and started to collect the equipment so she would bring them back to the cabinets.

"No, no, no." Noctis said. "You don't have to clean up, remember what I said. Just go already." Noctis said.

"But-"

"And take the jacket." Noctis smiled and threw the jacket to her.

"Uhm, okay...thanks...I guess." Lightning said. "Sorry, this is so embarrassing."

"Don't worry, just take it. You offend me if you don't." Noctis said little amused.

"Umm, okay, thanks." Lightning said. "Well, bye. Try to get better." Lightning said and walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"I guess he'd rather to have you helping him, he is very embarrassed that he has to ask everyone to do everything for him. He 'doesn't need' help from other guys at least, he's little childish." Prompto said to Lightning.

"I have noticed that." Lightning said.

"I don't enjoy being his medic but I just have to be, could you look after him a little while? He can be really arrogant and rude so if he is then just leave, okay?" Prompto said.

"Well, I don't have anything else to do either..." Lightning said. "I'll look after him."

"Thanks." Prompto smiled.

"Okay, get in." Prompto opened the door of Noctis room and pushed Lightning in.

"Hey!" Lightning said to Prompto, but he closed the door.

Lightning turned around and eyed the room.

Noctis' room was huge, the walls were pitch black, the marble floor was pitch black too and so was the ceiling and furniture. There were different shades of black, from really dark grey to pitch black, only at the ceiling and some furniture had some golden details. The room was illuminated by a pitch black chandelier, the laps were black too, it made the room really shady. The black walls absorbed all the light which was left.

"_This is crazy; I can just barely see where I am going. How can he read or that kind of stuff in here if it's so dark?" _Lightning thought.

Everything was ridiculously big, the bookshelves, the **black **'paintings' on the walls, the other decoration stuff, fireplace, you name it. The room was very clean and the furniture and other stuff were brand new. There were two doors at the other end of the room. There was many partition walls in the room because it was so big, the place where she was now looked like a 'small' living room.

Lightning started to walk around the room, eyeing it curiously. She walked past a wall which was covered with shiny transparent gemstone looking...stones? Lightning wasn't sure what they were, but the wall was like a fountain, but the water was flowing down the ceiling, even though she didn't see any holes in there. Lightning actually liked the sound of water flowing slowly, it was a good thing. The wall kept covering the whole are between the partition walls. Lightning touched the wall to see if the water was real or just some kind of crazy illusion.

Lightning pulled her hand right back when she touched the wall, it was water indeed, but it was really cold, colder than ice, which was really odd too. Lightning couldn't understand how he could like things like this.

Lightning was getting cold by standing so close of the colder-than-ice kind of fountain and she headed to the next partition.

Lightning walked until she came to a really detailed small gate, which was an entrance to the third part of the room. Lightning wasn't sure if she should go or not, she wouldn't have wanted strangers to go to her room without permission so why would he? She didn't want to get caught from being here and the further she would go, the bigger was the change to be spotted and Lightning didn't know what'd be Noctis' reaction.

Lightning opened the gate and went in. Right in front of her was a big cabinet which was locked with padlock. There were a lot of windows; it was a pity that almost all of them were covered by black curtains. Everything was black again; literally, she had a hard time to look around even though some light managed to escape between the curtains into the room.

Lightning walked around the corner and there was a huge bed. It was black too, sheets and all. On the both sides of the bed were two doors. Lightning walked a little closer until she saw Noctis sleeping on the bed. Lightning felt so embarrassed, she shouldn't have just come in like that. There were some of his clothes on the floor next to his bed, fortunately he had a cover on so she didn't have to see how he preferred to sleep, but she could see that he didn't have a shirt on even though he was buried in pillows and blankets.

Lightning walked next to his bed. Noctis was still strapped on the ventilator so his breathing was really slow, the machine made him to take deep breaths, which must have felt uncomfortable since people didn't normally breathe like that.

Noctis looked so cute, his hair so messy and he had so peaceful expression on his face. He was sleeping partly on his stomach hugging a big pillow his back towards Lightning. The blanket was pulled up to his waist. Lightning couldn't do anything but to admire his body, it was funny that how masculine manly he could be at the same time when he acted little immaturely.

It was a pity that she didn't really have any kind of feeling towards him, he just was a really good looking person, he was her friend thought.

Lightning laid her hand on Noctis' shoulder and shook him a little.

"Noctis, wake up." Lightning whispered.

Noctis moved a little and mumbled something.

_He moved._ Lightning stared at him flabbergasted.

Lightning shook him again. "Wake up Noctis, it's 1 PM." Lightning said.

Noctis turned on his other side and grabbed Lightning by the collar.

"What the hell?! Who let you in?!" Noctis shouted to her half asleep.

Lightning was horrified. "I-I'm sorry, I just wanted to come to see how you were doing." Lightning stuttered. "P-Prompto told me to go and see that hoe you're doing, I can go to get Prompto here if you want." Lightning said.

"Huh?" Noctis said and rubbed his eyes.

Noctis let go of Lightning. "Oh god, are you okay? Sorry, I didn't know that it was you. Nobody is allowed to come here, I didn't know, sorry." Noctis said and fixed the position of her jacket.

His jacket.

Lightning rubbed her neck a little. "I'm sorry; I didn't know that I weren't allowed to come in. Maybe I should go, I'll come back later. Lightning said and turned around to leave.

Noctis grabbed Lightning by the wrist. "No, no, don't go, it's okay. You're allowed to come here whenever you want, don't worry. I just don't let anyone to come here while I'm here so this hasn't ever happened. Please sit down." Noctis said. "You have my jacket." Noctis smiled.

Lightning looked at Noctis with a questioning expression on her face and then she looked around to see if there would be a chair or something to sit on.

Noctis patted the edge of the bed next to him. "You can sit down here." Noctis said.

"Um...okay." Lightning said and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Do you want your jacket back? I just put it on, since it's little cold in here, I hope that you don't mind.

"No I don't, I'm happy to see that you're wearing it." Noctis touched her neck carefully. "Did I hurt you, does it hurt?" Noctis asked.

"I'm fine." Lightning said.

"Are you sure?" Noctis asked worried.

"Yes..." Lightning sighed.

"Sorry, I'm just concerned, I know that how easily I can hurt people without noticing it. I just wanted to know if you got hurt, you seem so fragile because you're so tiny." Noctis said.

Lightning sighed and shook her head. "Yes, I'm okay." Lightning said.

"Thank god." Noctis sighed of relief.

Lightning sneered. "Sometimes you're so silly." Lightning said.

"So, how are you doing?" Lightning asked. "Can you move?"

Noctis smiled. "A little, but many places are little stiff and sore."

"I said that you'd recover." Lightning smiled.

"Thanks Lightning." Noctis said fixed his position a little and he hugged Lightning.

"Uhm." Lightning said confused.

"Thanks." Noctis said.

"Don't squeeze so tightly; try to be more gentle, please. You might not be fully healed yet, but you're quite strong already, I can't breathe." Lightning mumbled.

Noctis loosened his grip a little. "I'm sorry; I'm just so happy that you've helped me so much, I'm amazed that people like you still exist, most of the people wouldn't have stayed by my side for such long time." Noctis said. "Thank you so much, this means a lot to me."

"Eh, it's okay." Lightning said and pushed him back. "Hey where are the infusion liquids and stuff? Weren't they here yesterday?" Lightning asked. Noctis didn't have to be supervised all the time anymore; his state was quite stable now after two weeks after the incident happened so she wouldn't have to look after him for a while, Prompto had taken care of him the last two days when he got the permission to get to his room to recover.

"I don't need any infusion liquids anymore." Noctis said. "I gotta eat soup or something; I can't eat anything solid yet. You can't imagine how hungry I am after not eating for two weeks, it was really creepy to get the calories and stuff from some liquid."

"I understand. Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something?" Lightning asked.

"No, thank you." Noctis said. "But can you spend some time with me?"

"Huh?"

"I want to do something with you, like talk or something. I would have wanted to introduce my room, but I'm afraid that I can't. You can look around if you want" Noctis said. "It's so boring to just be here all alone, not able to do anything.

"Alright." Lightning said. "How can you sleep here? It's so scary and cold in here." Lightning said.

"Oh...do you think so?" Noctis asked.

"Yes, I wouldn't be able to sleep here." Lightning said.

"Well, I like black." Noctis said.

"I understand, but this is just ridiculous, no offend." Lightning said.

"Sorry." Noctis said.

"Don't be, I just don't like black." Lightning said. "I have to check your wound, can you move a little?"

"Uh...sure." Noctis said and moved little to right so that there would be space for Lightning.

Lightning took the bandages next to her, which she brought. Lightning took the scissors and cut the old bandages open, and the wound revealed. It wasn't actually that bad anymore, even though the skin was really red around the wound and that he still had to take strong painkillers.

"Is it sore?" Lightning asked.

"A little." Noctis stroke her cheek and smiled. "I'm happy that you're taking care of me, nobody has ever taken care of me as well as you do."

"Alright." Lightning said simply and took a tube and she put some of the lotion on her hand. "Move the cover." Lightning said her both hands occupied.

Noctis blushed. "I-I'd rather not." Noctis stuttered.

Lightning raised her other eyebrow. "What is it? Aren't you wearing anything or what?" Lightning asked.

"I'm wearing just jogging pants but umm..." Noctis said.

"Don't be so childish" Lightning said. "This is little cold." Lightning said and applied the lotion on the upper part of the wound on his chest. When Lightning came to the lower end of the wound near to his hip, she put the lotion tube on the bed and pushed the corner of the cover aside and she pulled his pants down a little to apply the lotion.

Noctis flinched and blushed again.

Lightning put the new bandages on. "Are you okay?"

"Uh-huh." Noctis said with embarrassed expression on his face.

"Do you feel uncomfortable?" Lightning asked. "You must tell me if you are, you can apply this by yourself too, but I guess that it's quite painful for you to start stretching."

"N-No I'm okay." Noctis forced a smile on his face. "Yes it is little hard, the remains of my abs are killing me."

"Are you sure that you're okay?"

"Yeah, I just don't...like mornings." Noctis said.

"Why are you acting so strange...have you drank?" Lightning asked.

"No, no, no, I just- I'm just tired." Noctis stuttered.

"You're the strangest guy who I've met in why whole life." Lightning said.

Noctis looked at Lightning. "What kind of guys do you like then?" Noctis blurted and his face went red. "I-I mean, S-Sorry, I-" Noctis tried to take his words back.

Lightning smiled. "Oh, so that's what you have wanted to ask for so long time."

"No, no, that wasn't what I mea-"

"Nice guys, those who respect other people, those who can make you smile. I also like friendliness, politeness and guys who are open minded. I don't like playboys or guys so 'tough' who don't have the courage to show their feelings for example. I don't like violent guys either, or those who intentionally want to hurt others, I have had been around that kind of people a little too much." Lightning sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.

Noctis was silent, she had just pretty much that she didn't like guys like him.

"Does the way you look matter?" Noctis asked little doleful.

"Well, that's what you see in a person at first so some people won't bother to get to know the person if they don't like the way he looks like. I personally don't really care of that what the person looks like, but it's nice to see good looking people though, it's natural but reverse side is that many of the good looking people are full of themselves. I shouldn't generalize, but at least some people are like that, I know many of them." Lightning said.

Noctis fixed his position again to get to sit properly.

"What do I look like?" Noctis blushed. He just wanted to know that did she categorize him as some random useless guy or a guy who she could spend time with. It didn't sound good so far, she didn't know how much people he had murdered...for fun and he didn't really show his feelings, expect to Lightning.

Lightning grinned. "You can't ask questions like that." Lightning chuckled. "What if I would say that you're ugly? That would be rude, but you can't lie either."

"...I know, sorry." Noctis sighed and slumped back on his back on the bed.

"I didn't mean that you're ugly Noctis." Lightning said.

Noctis sighed, he grabbed and hugged it.

"Looking for comfort from a pillow?" Lightning giggled.

Noctis threw the pillow away and it hit to a crystal clear table which leg was in a shape of a dragon, the table broke into million pieces right away.

"Hell no." Noctis said and took another pillow and put it under his head.

"Do you usually break your stuff? I'm not impressed." Lightning said.

"Sorry...I guess that it's just my temper. I can be quite quick tempered." Noctis sighed.

"I can see that." Lightning said. "And Gladiolus told me."

Noctis rose up to sit right away. "What did he tell to you?!"

"Calm down." Lightning said.

"No, what did he say?" Noctis asked, concerned by that what kind of bad information had he told of him to Lightning.

"He claimed that you were a coldblooded murderer and that you have killed millions of people, just because you felt like killing them. He said that you are always really emotionless and arrogant, that you're not faking it. He really meant that your personality really is like that, he said that I must be joking when I told that you aren't like that." Lightning said.

"I don't understand why he said that, he is your friend and he pretty much chewed you out. I know that you might be little cruel, you slaughtered my whole army at the first night, but I don't think that you'd kill for fun. You were just little drunk, people make mistakes when they're drunk, but we can't blame the alcohol only, but I know that you didn't mean to do so much damage." Lightning said.

"..." Noctis was about to say something but he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Noctis hugged Lightning, pressing her tightly against his chest.

"Is something wrong?" Lightning asked and stroke his hair.

"Sorry." Noctis whispered.


End file.
